I \ S- 'M’. TWENTY YEARS m Porto Rico By ARTHUR JAMES ) ■* 1 . Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/twentyyearsinporOOjame TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO A RECORD OF PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY WORK SINCE THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION By ARTHUR JAMES, M.A., B.D. EDUCATIONAL WORK Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in the U, S. A. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Some Personal Characteristics.Page 9 “ II. The Social Life . “ 16 “ III. Religious Conditions. “ 26 “ IV. Medical Missions . “ 36 “ V. Educational and Community Work. ... “ 43 “ VI. Evangelistic Missions . “ 55 I FOREWORD A NGLO-SAXONS and Latins have much to learn from each other and much to contribute to one another’s happiness. In Porta Rico the two races are meeting under the American flag and there we have an exceptional op¬ portunity to learn by actual contact those traits in which the Latins excel and in turn to bring to the Porto Ricans what is best in our American civilization, especially our religion, our education and our science. In the latter service Mr. James, the author of this booklet, has given ten years of his life since graduating from Yale. He has come to have a genuine affec¬ tion for the Porto Ricans and has made his understanding and appreciation of them the basis of a successful ministry. He sets down here for the benefit of us who live in the “States,” his interpretation of the Porto Ricans in order that we may have an understanding of their personal characteristics and their social and religious life. He has gained a clear vision of their needs as well as of their attainments and he has made these needs a very real challenge to all American Christians interested in the cooperative task of building a great Christian democracy. Mr. James has the happy faculty of being able to say much in few words and as a result it is possible for the reader to obtain, in remarkably brief compass, an understanding of Porto Ricans and their needs and what the Presbyterian Church is doing to meet these needs. Fred Eastman A FEW FACTS ABOUT PORTO RICO SIZE AND POPULATION; 120 miles long: by 36 miles broad. 1920 census—1,300,000 population— American citi¬ zens 80 per cent live in the country. 60 per cent white—35 per cent mulatto—5 per cent negro. EDUCATIONAL STATE: 66 per cent illiterate. 41 per cent only of children of school age are in school. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS: Per capita wealth eleven times less than Conti¬ nental U. S. (Pre-war figures). 15 per cent of population have the entire wealth. DEATH BATE AND DISEASE: Death rate twice as high as Continental U. S. Half the deaths occur among children under 5 years of age—a higher Infant mortality than India. Two people out of five die without medical attend¬ ance. 90 per cent of population have hookworm—the rest have malaria. FAMILY LIFE: In some towns as high as 38 per cent of the fam¬ ilies without civil or religious sanction. No public opinion against concubinage or prostitu¬ tion. Venereal diseases very prevalent. RELIC.IOUS CONDITION: 50 per cent Catholic—12 per cent Protestant. The remainder rationalists. Spiritualists, indif¬ ferent s. More people attend Protestant services than Catholic. .4bout 14,000 Protestant members—2,500 Presby¬ terian. No overlapping of territory, Interdenominational Seminary. Interdenominational paper and press. Interdenominational Summer Conference of Workers. A strong Evangelical Union with working commit¬ tees on Education, Social Reform, Evangelism and Literature. OUTSTANDING DATES IN THE HISTORY OF PORTO RICO Discovery of Columbus.1493 Settled by Ponce de Leon.1500-11 Introduction of Negro Slaves.1515 Establishment of Inquisition.1519 Reign of Buccaneers and Filibusters.1625-1780 Inquisition Abolished .1813 Became a Province of Spain.1869 Emancipation of Slaves.1873 American Occupation .1898 Missionary Occupation .1898 Census—953,000 .1898 Establishment of Civil Government.1900 Porto Ricans Become United States Citizens.1917 Porto Rico votes drj' by tvvo-to-one majority.1917 Census (showing a population of 1,297,772).1920 No. 8 CHAPTER I Some Personal Characteristics Courtesy. The Porto Rican is the embodiment of hos¬ pitality, courtesy and tact. The poorest peon in the coun¬ try possesses a native social ease that is seldom found among Anglo-Saxons. The stranger can always be sure of an unaf¬ fected welcome even to the most humble country hut. This courtesy is not confined to the social life. It per¬ meates and influences every phase of living. In the business world, for example, although the Porto Rican has few equals when it comes to shrewdness, he does not depend upon the complicated efficiency systems of his northern brother. He has a way of ingratiating himself into the confidence of his customer and establishing a personal friendship. Instead of a monthly statement, when he is in need of money, he will hand you a signed receipt. A more subtle method could hardly be devised to create a special effort on the part of the cus¬ tomer to raise the necessary cash. By way of contrast an American grocery store on the island prints some such legend as this at the bottom of its bills and statements. “This is not a bank. Bills are payable promptly the first of every month. Interest will be charged on all overdue accounts at legal rate.” This method no doubt works well with the American clientele which the store serves, but it will not work with the Latin element. If the American business man is sincere in his desire to win the confidence of Latin America from a com¬ mercial standpoint he must, as other nations have already done, accommodate himself to this element of courtesy. The courtesy of the Porto Rican often runs to the extrem¬ ity—^^an outcome of exaggeration. We must not take him too literally. On the announcement of his new-born babe will appear the startling statement, “He is yours.” Express the slightest interest in a thing and the proprietor will tell you that you are welcome to it, even though it be the house which 10 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO has lodged him and his family for generations. One of the favorite stories both among the Porto Ricans and the resi¬ dent Americans is that during a visit to the home of a cul¬ tured Porto Rican, a northern tourist expressed his admira¬ tion of a beautiful picture—an heirloom of the family. With his customary courtesy, the host made the formal reply that the picture was the property of his guest. The literal Ameri¬ can, however, took his friend at his word and next morning sent a man to bring away his newly acquired work of art. Needless to say the man returned empty-handed, but with a positive opinion as to the prosaic nature of the northerner’s make up. Appreciation of the Beautiful. Another marked char¬ acteristic of the Porto Rican is his love of the beautiful. This trait manifests itself in every walk of life. It is seen in the language itself—the chief index of the life and feeling of a people. Good Spanish is not so much a matter of good gram¬ mar as it is “the way it sounds.” Art for art’s sake means a great deal to the Porto Rican. Far removed from the great metropolitan centers, the women of the inland towns appear in dresses of the latest Paris and New York styles which some native dressmaker has made from a picture in a cur¬ rent magazine, without either patterns or instructions. One of the tasks of Protestant missions is to supply direc¬ tion to this artistic sense. Where it does not have this direc¬ tion and where the artistic sense is not tempered by the prac¬ tical we oftentimes get a pitiful affection and much useless labor. A girl will work for months on a piece of drawn work and will shed innumerable tears because she cannot dis¬ pose of her work on account of the poor quality of the cloth on which she has put her labor. The cabinet maker, not con¬ tent with the native beauty of the mahogany, cedar or satin wood will, unless he has very specific instructions to the con¬ trary, work days and weeks carving these woods in imitation of some piece of cheap State’s furniture that may take his eye. Where work of this nature has had the oversight of a trained TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 11 teacher it results in that type of beauty characteristic of the Spanish-Moorish civilization. Idealism. The Porto Rican shares with his other Latin American brethren his characteristic idealism. In this respect we can note one of the chief differences from the more prac¬ tical northerner. The South American possesses a fine ideal¬ ism, but he seems to lack the ability to put his ideals into reality. This trait is offset by a fatalism which so often saps his energy and initiative. The constitutions of some of these Latin American Republics surpass even the work of Thomas Jefferson in their advocacy of justice and brotherhood; yet in many of these countries we find a revolution with almost every rainy season. It is refreshing to find a people whose standard of suc¬ cess is not the accumulation of material property, and who will put up with all kinds of political inconvenience provided they are able to live in comfort with family and friends; yet, on the other hand, it is disappointing to see so few native leaders develop. In our church work this is a decided deter¬ rent. Of good ideas and theories there is no dearth, but the will to put them into effect is lacking. It is the absence of this practical side of their nature that justifies the Anglo- Saxonized courses of study in our educational institutions. Whatever weakness these people may have along these lines, the right training has done much to offset it, as is evidenced in our trained, native ministry. Idealism is a noble trait and one that certainly has a great part in a well-rounded Christian experience, but it is essen¬ tial that this element should be balanced by a sense of prac¬ tical values. Giving this direction and imbuing the Porto Rican himself with this proportional view of things is an im¬ portant part of the work of the American missionary. Intellectual Qualities. The Porto Rican has a decided taste for purely intellectual questions. At a railroad station, in the drug store, or wherever men are wont to congregate we are always sure of a keen discussion on any religious or 12 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO philosophical question if we but take the trouble to start it. An appreciation for the abstract seems to be inherent with these islanders. A teacher in the first year high school had finished a course in Franklin’s Autobiography. In quizzing a fifteen year old freshman on this pragmatic book as to what he liked best about it, the teacher was startled with the reply "the author’s philosophy of life.” This was her first experi¬ ence in teaching on the island. Later she was not so much surprised to find that over 90 % of the same class elected "Sin and penance” as a subject to write on, following a study of the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” when they might have chosen, "The plot of the story,” or some such subject. Manual training and similar branches in the school curri¬ culum are popular, but they do not answer the purpose for which the emphasis has been placed on them in the course of study. It is probably just as difficult now to get a fairly well educated young Porto Rican to take up some form of manual work for his livelihood as it was twenty years ago. Recently a missionary was instrumental in putting one of the island adolescents in touch with an American—the object of the boy being to go to the States to follow this man’s line of business. In the course of his correspondence, the boy was very careful to state that he did not need the ordinary ground¬ work of the American youth; but that he was quite willing to do anything that would call forth the diplomatic ability for which the Latin race was noted! With all this intellectual interest, the Porto Rican can hardly be said to be up to date in his philosophy. He is a follower rather than a leader in this direction also. The greatest oppo¬ nent of the evangelical religion today is not so much Roman Catholicism as it is the kind of free thinking that swept the United States more than fifty years ago. The great modern and purifying philosophies of Bergson and Eucken do not seem to have found these people yet. It is to be hoped that their insular position will not permanently keep these forces out. Nothing could be of more help in the preaching of the TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 13 Gospel than a philosophy that would turn the people from a material conception of the universe to a spiritual one. Sympathy and Generosity. It is doubtful if there is a more kind and generous person to be found anywhere than the Porto Rican. In spite of the abject poverty of a large percentage of the population orphan asylums and similar institutions do not seem to flourish. If one or both parents die, the children are divided among the neighbors to share the trials and fortunes of another meager existence. During the war all philanthropies connected with the conflict were enthu¬ siastically supported. People who had never given to anything outside their town oversubscribed to the Red Cross and in Lib¬ erty Loans—often without a clear knowledge of what the money was for or where it was going. One incident which oc¬ curred in an interior country district will serve to show the spirit of the people. A planter was approached to subscribe his share of liberty bonds. He had been used to the periodical swindles of Spanish days, but could not be thought to be ungen¬ erous. He subscribed for $500.00 worth of bonds, but even after he had the United States’ receipt he firmly maintained that the money would not reach San Juan, the capital of the fsland, much less the boys on the western front. We have not seen him since he has been clipping his coupons, but certainly he must be one of a great company whom the fair treatment on the part of Uncle Sam has convinced that there is at least one government which does not exploit their generosity. Like all good traits these of generosity and sympathy have their abuses. The hundreds of professional beggars that infest the island thrive principally because it is easier to make an immediate appeal to the Porto Rican, than it is for the reformer to appeal to his sense of social justice with its more remote alleviation of the trouble. These mendicants make their rounds twice a week and receive food and money from their clients. It is a good business to those who play the game well and many of the parasites prosper. One well known beggar whose principal assets are cataracts on both his eyes has supported a 14 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO large family and is now owner of a small farm which he has bought from his “earnings.” He frequently receives alms from his wife as she comes from mass in her finery! A mis¬ sion doctor a few years ago offered to remove the cataracts from his eyes so that he might resume his former occupation as carpenter. He firmly refused this help with a string of belligerent language and charged the missionary with the offence of seeking to take away his employment! Mendicancy has been the object of many attacks, but it per¬ sists in spite of all agitation. The remedy must come from the Island itself. Should the American interfere he would be regarded as cold-blooded. It is gratifying to note, however, that the Protestant church is meeting with success in the sup¬ pression of this custom. The victorious campaign against the liquor traffic and the successful fights against social impurity and kindred vices are gradually striking at the root of the evil of which mendicancy is but a manifestation. Emotion. We may write of these characteristics, yet after all they are but manifestations of a more fundamental differ¬ ence between the Porto Rican and the North American. These islanders, like the rest of their race are fundamentally emo¬ tional while the continental is unemotional. By his virtues and his vices, we find that the Porto Rican is far more influ¬ enced by the great emotional instincts of life, love, hate, fear, joy and sorrow than the American. They are an impulsive people. In one small town there have been within a year, three attempts at assassination, two of which were successful. In one instance an infuriated brother sought to give expression of his disapproval of his sister’s sweetheart by shooting him as he came from the theater. A second case was that of a young man who shot and killed his best friend over a dispute as to the merits of their revolvers. The other case was that of a boy who fatally stabbed his opponent in a game of domi¬ noes in which a wager of three cents was at stake. It need not be said that this emotional nature has its out¬ let in other ways than in gruesome incidents such as these. It TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 15 is responsible for their social ease, for their love of the beau¬ tiful, for their idealism, for their generosity and sympathy. It is this element in their nature that has made the Spanish type of courtesy the standard of all polite conduct. It is universally recognized that a religious experience that is not based on the emotional nature of man is altogether incom¬ plete. “Out of the heart, come the issues of life.” The Porto Rican fundamentally has those elements that make for a great heart religion and the first phase of the missionary’s problem is to adapt our Anglo-Saxonized gospel to the natures and to the personal needs of these emotional people. No. 3 CHAPTER II The Social Life The complete Americanization of Porto Rico may be a mat¬ ter of years or of centuries, but it seems inevitable. Ameri¬ can civilization, largely the outcome of the Protestant reli¬ gion, does not have this religious background in Porto Rico. Therefore the social task of the evangelical church is to provide the moral element of this changed condition. The problem does not end in the conversion of the individual, but has within its scope the complete regeneration of the social life of the people. A study of the social conditions of the island will help us to understand the nature of this phase of the Church’s work. Population. The most recent statistics give the popula¬ tion of Porto Rico as 1,300,000 and the composition of the population as 60% white, 35% mulatto and 5% negro. Most of the whites are descended from Spanish colonists. In poli¬ tics or in business, the amount of color a person may have is no drawback. In the lower classes, where there is no ambi¬ tion for a social career, intermarriage between the white and the black is of frequent occurrence. There is no law, or even a positive opinion against the practice. In the higher states of society, there is a well-defined color line; inter-marriage of the races is strictly prohibited and membership in the casino and other recreational institutions is denied the man of color. “Rich Port” and Its Poverty. Porto Rico is the Span¬ ish for “Rich Port.”, Its natural wealth attracted the Spanish colonists of the 16th century. Today, from many points of view, the name is still descriptive of the island. The last fiscal year showed a trade balance, exports over imports, of $6,594,231 which in proportion to its population, was larger than that of the United States. The budget for the present year is $5,227,389 a bigger budget than twenty-three of the TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 17 States of the Union. The borrowing capacity of the island is $16,000,000. In spite of these facts, poverty and its attendant evils are very pressing problems. All the wealth of the island, we are told, is in the hands of 15% of the population and in spite of such a good trade balance the pre war per capita wealth of the island was $182 compared with a per capita wealth in continental United States of $1,123 and of $1,442 in Great Britain. Doctors Ashford and Gutierrez who, since the Occu¬ pation have done such valiant service in the eradication of Uncinariasis, the “hookworm,” know intimately the country¬ man, or “Jibero” of Porto Rico who comprises such a large proportion of the population. They give this description of the daily diet of this unfortunate class: “He rises at dawn and takes a cocoanut dipperful of ‘cafe puya,’—coffee without sugar. Naturally, he never uses milk. With this black coffee he works until 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 carborate element; banana, platano, name, batata, or yaytia. “At three in the afternoon he takes another dipperful of coffee, as he began the day. At dusk he returns to the house and has one single dish, a kind of stew, made of the current vegetables of the island, with rice and codfish. At rare inter¬ vals, he treats himself to pork, of which he is very 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 foods there are only three ele¬ ments 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 visit to town is made of American flour. . . . “Only a few cents difference in wages will cut out the small 18 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO proportion of animal proteids he obtains, the codfish, and a cyclone will drive him in desperation to the town.” Many have been the remedies brought forward to relieve this distressing poverty. The more recent, that of emigration, has received a great deal of attention. Dr. Fleagle, formerly dean of the University of Porto Rico, and a keen student of the social life of the island, writing of this method says that Porto Rico could support twice the population that she now has with comparative ease, providing some means is found to relieve the economic situation of the greater part of the people and to prevent the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a comparative small number. Of the other proposed solutions, the elimination of the absentee landlord and the establishment of a system of small farms in the place of the great plantations that now exist and dominate the agricultural life of the island has strong adher¬ ents. Many of the best friends of the island see in this peas¬ ant proprietorship with a system of rural co-operation simi¬ lar to that of Denmark, the salvation of the island from the pall of poverty. It is probably the best solution offered, but the Porto Rican is notoriously individualistic and the co-opera¬ tive part of the scheme is likely to fail unless it is preceded by years of education and experiment. For the Church to ignore this state of things would be impos¬ sible—all of its work is conditioned by it. Yet poverty is a many sided monster and the evangelical church has thus far met it in part by promoting temperance and social purity, establishing hospitals and clinics, social centers and industrial schools and above all by the preaching of the gospel which in Porto Rico as elsewhere has demonstrated its power to save to the uttermost. What lies before the Church in this new era no one knows, but that we must lead in the solution of this problem and not hand over the leadership to other forces with their destruc¬ tive programs is a point upon which every evangelical leader in Porto Rico is agreed. TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 19 La Segunda Clase. One of the outstanding results of the American Occupation of Porto Rico is the bridging of the gulf that divides the extremely wealthy from the peon classes. The creation of a middle class seems to be one of the contri¬ butions of the Anglo-Saxon race to the social life of the island. The personnel of most of the distinctively American institu¬ tions consists of members of the “Segunda clase,” people, who, before the occupation, were without any social standing and are now teaching in the public schools, occupying government offices and preaching in many of our evangelical pulpits. In this new democratic arrangement, there are many instances where this virile element of Porto Rican life has thrust the so-called “primeras” from places of responsibility which fam¬ ily and wealth had given them for centuries. The boss of one of the important political parties on the island, is colored. In the afternoon he will confer and dictate to men with whom in the evening he would not be permitted to associate in a social way. The class is as a rule stoutly pro-American. It is this kind of people that comprise to a great extent the membership of our evangelical churches, and it is in them that our hope of a self-supporting church lies. La Buena Familia. It has been said that the English word “home” has no equivalent in the Spanish language. In its larger meaning, this may be true but whatever significance this fact has in the Spanish character the family and family life has as great a part in Hibernian civilization as in our own. For the honor of his family the Porto Rican will make any sacrifice. There are dozens of young men in Porto Rico today who were trained in the States and had started in some promising professional career; yet they quit their profession to return to the land of their birth in order to satisfy one or both parents who could not be separated from their “ninos.” If one is a member of a “buena familia”—a good family— he is likely to be forgiven a multitude of sins and weak¬ nesses. What the family wealth will do for the prodigal in 20 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO the States, the family name will do for the Porto Rican scape¬ goat. Quite recently in the writer’s district, a member of one of the most honored families in the community committed what, under other circumstances, would have been an unpar¬ donable breach of etiquette. He drank too much of the for¬ bidden juice, and in a drunken drivel insulted his host at a ball. The matter was hushed up and the fellow is apparently in as good a social standing as before. In one of our recent church entertainments in assigning the parts, the Porto Rican director paid more attention to the fam¬ ilies of the actors than she did to their dramatic ability, evi¬ dently with an eye to the box office receipts and to future criti¬ cism of the play. Concubinage. According to the census of 1910, 16% of the males and 15.7% of the females were consensually mar¬ ried. That is, one-sixth of all the people over 15 years of age are living together without the benefit of a civil or eccle¬ siastical marriage. In a recent social survey conducted by the Presbytery of Porto Rico out of families visited 18% reported that they were living together without the sanction of mar¬ riage. In some centers, the percentage went as high as 38%. There are two reasons advanced that are supposed to be responsible for this state of things. The first is the loose liv¬ ing of the Spanish colonists. Unlike our Pilgrim fathers who came to America with their families, these Spaniards were mostly adventurers who left family ties behind them and entered into this consensual marriage with the native women. Because of the lack of moral resistance of the partially civ¬ ilized islanders this practice became an accepted custom. The other reason advanced is that of the extortionate and prohibi¬ tory fees charged by the Church. Ecclesiastical marriages were the only kind recognized before the .American occupation. In war days the draft laws sent thousands of couples to the priest, minister and magistrate to legalize their unions, in order to qualify for the government allotments in case the men were called to the colors. TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 21 The most deplorable phase of these unions is that the chil¬ dren who are born are denied a real home. In the eyes of the law, there is the “natural” child, and the illegitimate child. The “natural” child is a child born out of wedlock but recog¬ nized and registered by the father. This child has a legal standing. The father supports it and grants it a minimum percentage of his estate. As a rule the child lives with its mother. Later should the father marry, the natural child has the humiliation of seeing his half brothers and sisters enjoying social recognition and prestige in which he too ought to share. As one of the native legislators in advocating better and fairer laws for the natural child has said: “The natural child abandoned by its father needs the law to pro¬ tect him more than the legitimate child, because society rejects him. If it accepts him at all it is on an inferior level when referring to his rights. Frequently hfs father turns his back upon him and pretends that he does not know him.” There is as yet no insular law that will effectually correct the evil; nothing will do it but an educated Christian public opinion. The Evangelical Church is the only institution on the island that fights openly this unsocial practice. The illegitimate child is another outcome of these loose sexual relations. The last census figures gives the number of illegitimate children in Porto Rico as 155,249, a slight decrease over the previous census. The evil results of illegitimacy in Porto Rico are the same as elsewhere. Many of the children are abandoned by both parents and owing to lack of sufficient orphanages and children’s homes, it is estimated that today there are 10,000 homeless children on the Island under twelve years of age. The children live on what they can earn, beg or steal. They sleep in the waiting room of a railway station, in the comfortable branches of a tropical tree, or on the porch of some residence. They are entirely illiterate and form the class from which come the beggars and thieves. “They constitute a danger to the community, and if it were not for the relatively high death rate that is found among 22 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO people of this class, the island would soon be overrun by citizens brought up under these criminal-forming conditions.” Prostitution. The public prostitute is accepted by the majority of the people of the island as a part of the normal public life. During the recent war in the enforcement of the five mile act and similar legislation, the Attorney General of the Island encountered so much opposition that he was almost compelled to resign. Until recently this phase of the Island’s life was completely ignored; there was no segregation, no medical inspection and no public interest in the matter. At present in the larger cities there are organizations of women working together for the welfare of their fallen sis¬ ters. At a recent Social Purity Sunday, the evangelical churches of the Island contributed $400.00 to be used in helping the government restore the unfortunate women then in the jails to normal living. Many of these women had already expressed a desire to lead a different life. Under such organizations as the W. C. T. U. they are being taught dif¬ ferent native industries. Recreational Life. In the abandon of their play we are much more likely to get a true perspective of Porto Ricans than in their more self-conscious moments. “Palms, Patios and Plazas” has been used to describe Cuba. For the recre¬ ational life of Porto Rico, although at the, sacrifice of the alliteration, we could substitute “Casinos, Plazas, and Fiestas.” The Casino is the apex of the social life of the Island. Every town, even though it be not more than a group of huts in the mountain, will maintain its casino. To be a member of this group is the social ambition of the youth of the town. It is however exclusive, by reason of its color line and by its prohibitory fees, and is really the only institution in the Island’s social life that does not recognize the social equality of the negro. In spite of protests from one or the other excluded parties the casino maintains its exclusive feature and sets the pace for the smart set of the community. The attitude of the evangelical church to this institution TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 23 varies according to the church and community. Wherever the church has openly espoused the casino it has resulted disas¬ trously for the church and the minister. In the past the casino has been a big dispenser of liquors and was tabooed by most of the churches on this account. Today, although this feature is supposed to have been eliminated, many of the casinos are, to a great extent, gambling clubs and for this reason are dis¬ approved by our churches. However, it is very difficult to formulate a prohibitory policy, and to place a ban on such a native institution may prove detrimental to the work of the church. It would be better to so regenerate this institution that it may become a constructive influence in the community’s welfare. The Plaza. There is no parallel or counterpart in Anglo- Saxon life to the plaza in Spanish-American life. What the casino is to a selected class, the plaza is to the masses. It is the real community center. When night falls the boys and girls, young men and maidens, husbands and wives congregate in the plaza or public square of the city. The older people sit on the side and chat, while the young folks begin to parade, often to the quaint music of a native orchestra. In this parade the girls circle one way and the young men the other. So great is the power of custom and so carefully chaperoned are the young ladies that if a girl should circle with a young man it would be almost tantamount to an engagement. Then would follow the balcony flirtation, the serenade, and the formal betrothment. Within a year or so, this girl will be seated at the fringe of the procession watching her sister take a simi¬ lar step. How do these girls so closely chaperoned ever get an opportunity to express a preference for their “novios?” These difficulties vanish with one’s acquaintance with these people. Love laughs at locksmiths and at chaperones in Porto Rico as elsewhere. As Professor Ross has recently said: “It is needless to point out that without opportunity of speech the young people become marvelously skilled in the language of the eyes. What a senorita looking over the edge of a fan 24 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO can express with her dark eyes would rouse a poet from the dead.” The Fiesta. The fiesta is another thing that is essentially a part of the Porto Rican life. It is something more than a social gathering; it is a state of mind that grasps at any excuse to turn from the serious things of life to the more entertain¬ ing. Hardly a week passes that does not have a holiday or some saint’s day to celebrate. Nothing brought about by the American Occupation was so unanimously adopted by the Porto Ricans as the American holidays. George Washing¬ ton meant nothing to the simple mountaineers, but the 22nd of February was an important fiesta of the “Americano,” and so now with vim they celebrate the birthday of the “American patron—Saint George !” Christmas day in Porto Rico did not mean much to the children. The youngsters have their festival on the 6th of January, Three Kings Day. This holiday celebrates the com¬ ing of the Wise Men, Before retiring the children will fill baskets with grass and place them in conspicuous places so that the Wise Men in their search for the infant Jesus will see them and in return for fodder for their beasts, will leave pres¬ ents for the children. The coming of Santa Claus with the Americans did not oust this custom by any means; he was wel¬ comed as an additional friend and now these two days as well as New Year’s are duly celebrated. It does not have to be emphasized that the religious significance of the fiesta is very great. One of the chief criticisms against the Catholic Church, alike from the Protestants and from serious-minded Catholics is that this church has over-emphasized the fiesta. For the Saints’ Days and other special celebrations the church will be crowded, while at the devotional services, mass and confes¬ sion, in many towns it is difficult to find more than a few devout women. Sports. One might think that to this fiesta-loving people America could not introduce much in the way of amusement. In this direction, however, we have made one of the most TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 25 notable contributions to the life of the people. The Porto Rican when it comes to team work is lacking in what the Anglo-Saxon considers the first element of a good sport. Prof. Ross in his South of Panama, quotes a British diplomat “who knows the continent from Panama to Patagonia” as say¬ ing, “Distrust is universal here. No South American will put his faith in another South American.” In his sport the end is likely to justify the means. A little cheating is all right, if you are not found out. American base ball has done more to rectify this fault than perhaps any other factor. The public school has been the great agency in teaching the national game. It is now impossible to go into the remotest “barrio” and not find a base ball diamond. As one travels through the country on a Sunday, he frequently comes across an excited crowd yell¬ ing themselves hoarse. The English words “Foul,” “Play ball,” “Strike” will arise from a jargon of incomprehensible Spanish. American sports have taught the Porto Rican the value of team work, and that there is something more important than to win a game. While the evangelical church has no direct part in this work, it welcomes a clean game of base ball as a very fine help to its task. CHAPTER III Religious Conditions Catholicism. “In no other part of the world has the Catho¬ lic Church been so protected as in South America,” says Prof. Ross in his South of Panama. In practically all of these Latin countries, the Roman Church is supported by the State, and the Church controls and directs the educational policies of the State. Porto Rico was probably the most immune of any of these countries to Protestant influence. If the Catholic Church ever had an opportunity to prove its saving power it was in this island. From 1493 to 1898—over 400 years—it had no competition. With the single exception of a small Episcopal Church for the English colony in the city of Ponce, no other religious body but the Roman Catholic Church was permit¬ ted to work among this island people. The effect of this isolation, this “closed shop” policy, may be fairly judged by the statements of Father Sherman, son of General Sherman and chaplain to the American army of occu¬ pation in Porto Rico. To a Catholic paper he writes, “Porto Rico is a Catholic country without religion whatever. The clergy do not seem to have any firm hold on the native peo¬ ple, nor have they any lively sympathy with the Porto Ricans or Porto Rico.” In his report to General Brooke he said, “Now that the priests are deprived of government aid, many are leaving the country. The Church was so united with the State and so identified with it in the eyes of the people that it must share the odium with which the Spanish rule is com¬ monly regarded. The sacrament of confirmation has not been administered for many years in a great part of the island. Religion is dead on the island.” So far as statistics can bear any light on the subject, about 50% of the people are nominally Catholic, though the Church claims 60%. Membership in the Catholic Church, however, is quite a different thing from membership in the Protestant TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 27 Church. If a person has been baptized in infancy, that per¬ son from the standpoint of Rome is a member of the Church. The life he subsequently leads has little to do with his church affiliation. A comparison of the Catholic and Protestant churches by membership, then, would be very misleading. The Protestant churches, whose membership is the result of a mature decision and is supposedly dependent upon a moral life, need a different basis of comparison. A more fair method of judging the influence of these two religious organizations was inaugurated a few years ago. In a large section of the island the people who attended the Catholic and Protestant churches were enumerated and it was found that on this Sunday, the Catholic Church held 80 services in towns with an attendance of 7,731 persons and eight services in the coun¬ try with an attendance of 363 persons, a total attendance for the Catholics of 8,094. On the same day, and in the same dis¬ trict the Protestants held 70 services in towns with an attend¬ ance of 4,796 while in the country they held 102 services with an attendance of 4,074, a total for the Protestants of 8,870. Had the census not stopped with attendance at Sun¬ day services, but continued through the week the result would have been a great deal more favorable for the Protes¬ tants. For in the eighty towns and centers enumerated there would easily have been fifty Protestant services each day of the week while the Catholic midweek services—unless there is a special fiesta—are practically nil. Let us not make the error, though, of basing too much on any set of figures. The Protestants are quite willing to let their influence be judged by the fruits of their work. Ignorance and Superstition. From an evangelical point of view the principle reason that Roman Catholicism falls short of ministering to the spiritual needs of the Porto Rican is because of the ignorance it makes little effort to remove, and because of the superstitious practices it sanctions in the name of religion. The Catholic Church in Porto Rico has always opposed anything in the way of popular education and 28 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO consequently ignorance and superstition have for four cen¬ turies prevented the creation of an enlightened public opinion. During the recent series of earthquakes, even the American priests led the rogativas—candlelight processions—to appease the wrath of the Devil who was said to be the cause of the disturbances. In many places the priests explained that the earthquake came as a result of anti-Catholic propaganda. In one city in particular, where the damage had been exception¬ ally heavy the American priest insisted that the people of the town had brought it on themselves by persisting in the removal of his predecessor for grossly immoral conduct. At the ancient town of Aguadilla, where the tidal wave did so much dam¬ age and where the Catholic Church was demolished, the priest hit upon the plan of placing the Patron Saint of the town on the balcony of a house facing the sea. So great was the power of this effigy that in spite of shocks and rumors of shocks, the sea did not invade the town again. On Palm Sunday, the natives flock to town and to mass bringing their palm branches with them. So great is the demand for the palm branches that even the Protestant minis¬ ter’s cocoanut palms are likely to be injured by his good Catho¬ lic friends begging too many branches. At the church, the priest blesses the branches and the people take them home and place them in front of their houses to protect the domicile against lightning. Usually the branches are beaten down by the first heavy storm. When the young manhood of the Island was called upon for military service in the past war, instead of devoting them¬ selves and their energy to some more practical occupation, the ultra Catholic women of the Island made “Corazons de Jesus” —Hearts of Jesus. This piece of needlework was to prevent any bullet reaching the soldiers. In as much as the Armistice was signed two days before the boys had been ordered to leave for France, it may be presumed that the women now claim that their badges were effective in “keeping the bullets away.” From 10.00 A. M. of the Thursday of Holy Week until the TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 29 same hour on Saturday is a peculiarly sacred time for the Catholics of Porto Rico. This time does not simply com¬ memorate the death of our Lord, but to them Jesus is actually dead again and in his tomb. The absurd consequences of such a belief indicate the depth of the superstitious mire into which the Catholic Church in Porto Rico has been plunged. To Porto Rican Catholics not only is the Lord again dead but the whole physical world suffers the pangs of death with him. Should a person do anything in this period that is not authorized by the Church, he will be doing it to the very body of Christ. Manual work is, of course, tabooed. The poor of both town and country, if they be devout Catholics must quit their work, for should even a nail be driven to make their rickety huts more secure, they would be driving it into the very body of the Master. Cases that illustrate this superstitious nature of the Catholic Church in Porto Rico might be multiplied ad infinitum. They would only prove that which is evident to the casual observer of religious conditions in Porto Rico—the need of a religion where reason and feeling are so blended that in avoiding super¬ stition a cold intellectualism, or an intangible mysticism is not established. Its Anti-Social Nature. Again, the Catholic Church in Porto Rico is anti-social. The whole hierarchical system is opposed to our modern democratic view of looking at things. To the native, the Catholic Church is the greatest supporter of the caste system that dominates the Island. When a family of some note is interested in the Protestant faith, the greatest argument that the priest thinks he can bring to bear on them is, ^‘Only the poor people are Protestant.” He is greatly per¬ plexed when this line of reasoning does not have the desired result. That which is our greatest glory is, from the Catholic point of view our most vulnerable point. The fact that every spiritual revival, alike in Catholic and Protestant Churches, has had its origin among the lowly seems to have been for¬ gotten by the Porto Rican Catholic protagonists. I 30 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO This anti-social nature is shown particularly in movements like Prohibition and the Social Purity campaigns. For such movements the Catholic Church shows either an active oppo¬ sition or a total indifference. Even in sacramental matters, the Catholic hierarchy shows this same diffidence to the artificial lines of cleavage in the social life of the people. It is no uncommon thing for the Prot¬ estant minister to have some poor ignorant woman bring him her child to be baptized because the priest has refused to do so since she has not enough money to pay the minimum fee. In funeral services for the peasant who can pay only a few cents, the priest will mumble a few formularies in the church; for those who can pay a little more, he will take them to the door of the church; with others higher up in the social and financial scale he will walk down the steps of the church; for la biiena familia, however, he and his assistants in their finest regalia will go to the graveyard with the cortege. The Catholic Church in Porto Rico does not seem to have awakened to the fact that we are living today in a democratic world and that the surest, if the slowest, way to get even political power is to work with the masses. The church, how¬ ever, plays the game as it did in the time of king and court. If the energy that is used in San Juan, the capital of the island, by the Catholics to pick some political plum or to curry favor with some political appointee were spent in the bettering of the social and moral conditions of the island, Porto Rico would be a far more wholesome place than it is at present. Low Moral Standards of the Priesthood. The immor¬ ality of the priests in Latin America has always been the sub¬ ject of more criticism than any other phase of the dominant religion of the southern continent. If it is a fact that the clergy are as generally immoral as some people say they are, then the case for the Catholic Church is ended. No matter what claims of sacerdotal exemption the Church may hold for its clergy a gospel for the pure in heart cannot be proclaimed TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 31 by immoral preachers any more than a stream can rise higher than its source. It should be said, though, that anybody vis¬ iting Porto Rico would not find every priest a profligate. Whatever the case in Spanish days, under the spur of the American priest and of evangelical competition, the cura of a parish is usually a fairly decent man. Religious Terms Made Meaningless. A traveler in a Latin land or a student of any Latin literature is bound to be impressed by the occurrence and recurrence of religious phrases. If the phrases convey the same idea as they do to the Anglo-Saxon, the traveler or student may rightly assume that either the people are a very religious or a very profane people. That these expressions have very little to do with their spiritual life is one of the first conclusions of the per¬ manent resident in these lands. Professor Ross in his travels through South America tells of seeing the “Butcher Shop of the Holy Spirit” over a meat shop, of reading an advertisement for “The Wine of the Last Supper,” and of another announcement of a new brand of cigarettes with the twelve disciples puffing away at them and Judas remarking, “If I had had this kind of cigarette to smoke, I never would have betrayed him.” The American influence in Porto Rico has to a great extent done away with this crudeness, yet a newly arrived mission¬ ary will be greeted by his compatriots in business or govern¬ ment service by a felicitation that the language will not be hard for him to learn because half the words are cuss words that the missionary will have no use for. A thorough study of the Spanish language and nature would indicate that there was no such thing as swearing. “Ave Maria Santissima” which would literally mean “the most holy mother of God” is translated in a recent grammar as “Good gracious.” When a Porto Rican cannot express his indignation by the ordinary vocabulary and gesture, he has no cuss words on which to fall back—he simply explodes. All of this indicates a most difficult phase of the mission- 32 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO ary’s work. He has to engender into the sacred words and phrases zvhich are bandied about in ordinary conversation a meaning similar to that held by the evangelical Christian in other parts of the zvorld. The usual penance inflicted by the Catholic priest on one of his flock who has visited the missionary’s house is to have him repeat the Lord’s prayer over a number of times, the num¬ ber depending on how many times the offence has been re¬ peated. The speed with which these “Padre Nuestros” are rattled off and the fun the miserable offenders have in rac¬ ing through them are only paralleled by the absolute lack of any spiritual aid they expect to receive from the exercise. Even the names of these people make the missionary’s task more difficult. Often a child is named for the patron saint of the day on which he was born and in addition will usually have some Biblical cognomen added. Popular names for the girls are Resurecion, Concepcion, Asuncion. During the first few months of the writer’s stay in Porto Rico he was engaged in the erection of a mission building in a mountain town. The chief carpenter’s name was Jesus while his peon’s name was John the Baptist. The new missionary never could get used to sending John the Baptist to look for Jesus even though the Spanish pronunciation helped a great deal. He had to invent nicknames for the men. The assignment of an original prayer is a favorite one among the Spanish teachers of the Island. “This kind of composition,” they say, “lends itself to the Spanish nature.” The productions that emanate from the pens of these Porto Rican adolescents are remarkable. Some of the prayers of the village scamp, who has not seen the inside of a church since he was baptized would, so far as lofty diction is con¬ cerned, compare favorably with the productions of the Church Fathers. But the gospel changes this phase of life also. It is not only one of the most gracious works of the Holy Spirit, but it is at the same time one of the greatest joys of the Chris- TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 33 tian worker to find eventually that with a changed heart comes a changed vocabulary. Many names and phrases which before were treated so lightly have taken on a new spiritual meaning. Spiritism. One form of belief that has greatly affected the religious life of the Island is Spiritism, the principal doc¬ trines of which are: 1. A pantheistic idea of God, and that complete absorption with him is the goal of human endeavor. 2. That this absorption into the infinite is at the end of an indefinite number of reincarnations. 3. That salvation comes from good works—that the number of rein¬ carnations is determined by the good works one has to his credit. 4. That all will be eventually saved and consequently there will be no future punishment. 5. That there should be a respect for the Bible, and a belief in those parts which favor spiritism. 6. That Jesus Christ was one of the world’s greatest teachers. 7. That there is spiritual healing of sickness by medicine prescribed by the good spirits. 8. That it is possible to communicate with the dead. 9. That Love should dominate all relations of this life, and that Light and Truth should be the aim of all those living on this plane of exist¬ ence. The government of the cult is very loose and simple. In every important town there are spiritualistic centers and these centers are grouped together in an insular association. There are but few professional preachers, or “orators,” as they are called. This phase of worship is left to the prompting of the spirits during the session. There are of course mediums at every center—intermediaries between this material world and the spiritual one. In a general way the spiritists of Porto Rico may be divided into two classes. The intellectual and well-to-do, and the poor and ignorant. The first group are now, for the most part, reorganizing themselves into theosophical societies. The poorer members of this sect, and there are stretches of coun¬ try and whole sections of towns where spiritism reigns,— practice the cult in its crudest forms. That these forms of belief appeal to such a susceptible people as the Porto Ricans is not at all strange. A clear cut 34 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO distinction between the real and the unreal does not exist for the unsophisticated inhabitant. He will relate his dreams as if they were part of his conscious experience, or he will repeat a neighborhood ghost story without the slightest doubt as to the historical accuracy of the legend. In such a fertile field as this the propagator of a belief in which the communication with loved ones is the most dis¬ tinguishing feature has an easy task; especially when he as¬ sumes occult powers to heal the sick, to peer into the future and to restore lost property. Poor people will travel from all parts of the Island on foot to their favorite medium when they are afflicted with some malady. Should the medium fail to restore them, it will be due to some faulty spiritual con¬ nection, and should, by chance, the invalid recover his health the particular medium will claim all the credit, and her fame will go forth throughout the land as a successful intermediary. The moral effects of spiritism as it appears in Porto Rico are not happy. Many spiritists live nearly as they please. There is no counterpart to the wonderfully vivifying evan¬ gelical doctrine of salvation by faith. When eventually the great delusion of a self-determined salvation has dawned many of them drift into complete indifference. Not a few how¬ ever, turn to the Protestant Church, and by a simple trust in an infinite Savior find the Love, the Light and the Truth. Rationalism and Indifference. The purely negative side of the religious life of Porto Rico is expressed in the rationalism and indifference of the Island. The rationalists or freethinkers (fibre pensadores) theoret¬ ically believe in a material conception of the universe. They profess to have nothing to do with anything that savors of the spiritual. Practically they have very little to show from a constructive point of view. As an organization they are small in numbers, but they have many semi-adherents through¬ out the Island. Their periodical has a large circulation. Judg¬ ing from this paper the efforts of the freethinkers are largely spent in exposing the abuses of the Catholic Church. The TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 35 Protestants, however come in for their share. Cheap Biblical criticism appears every week. The “libre pensador” preach the philosophy with which Tom Paine clarified the atmosphere more than a century ago and with which Robert Ingersoll stirred the American nation last generation. Today we have neither a lifeless Deism nor a deadening orthodoxy, at least in our evangelical world. In making the assumption that these former conditions hold good today, the rationalists are simply attacking men of straw of their own manufacture. Los indiferentes —those that are indififerent to any kind of religious appeal, from a religious point of view, comprise the largest section of the population of the Island. In the survey an “indiferente” was one who had not attended any religious service for three years. This indifference is due largely to the fact that, having seen the inability of the Catholic Church to minister to the spiritual needs of the people and thinking that the Protestant Church and all other religious organizations have the same deficiency, many peo¬ ple prefer to have no religious affiliations. The membership of the evangelical churches of the Island is for the most part derived from these people who had pro¬ fessed an indifference to religion. Every local church, of course, has a number of members on its rolls who, in spite of injunction and threat of priest, have come into the fold of Protestantism directly from the Catholic Church, and every local church has, furthermore, those who have left behind the vagaries of spiritism and have stepped directly from Cen¬ ter to Church. However, the chief source of supply is from the honest doubters of the Island. “Los indiferentes” not only are open to conviction, but very often anxious to be con¬ vinced. When priest, medium and minister have an equal opportunity of approach, it is not to be wondered that so many turn to the Gospel for the satisfaction they have so long desired. CHAPTER IV Medical Missions Medical missions have become an indispensable part of world evangelization. In Porto Rico, the Christian minister and the Christian doctor have started work together. They have demonstrated during these twenty years, as the Master himself demonstrated two thousand years ago, that the heal¬ ing of the body and the saving of the soul are both Christian tasks and part of the Great Commission. The need of medical ministry is indicated by the fact that the death rate of the Island is thirty-two per thousand; twice that of Continental United States and three times that of the Philippines and Hawaii. This death rate has increased so much in the past three years that the insular government has petitioned the Rockefeller Foundation for a special investiga¬ tion of the causes. Furthermore the survey into the social and religious conditions conducted by the Presb^ery of Porto Rico revealed the startling fact that three out of five families in case of sickness cannot call in medical attendance, and that the same percentage of people die without a doctor hav¬ ing attended them. In the country the proportion is much higher. The fee for a country visit by a regular medical practitioner is between $6.00 and $8.00. To the ignorant countryman earning from $.40 to $1.50 a day, these fees are prohibitive. He has in many instances no other recourse than the accommodating spiritualistic medium, or some grosser form of superstitution. Many good remedies exist in the mountain district of the Island, although, on the other hand, there are many crude, harmful remedies. Blood-poisoning and infections of vari¬ ous kinds are very common. For their cure the countryman will drink the soup of boiled ants’ nests (comejen) and place on the infected part a mixture of olive oil, tobacco and nut¬ meg. Should the children of the family develop colds, the TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 37 countryman will make bracelets of small unripe lemons and place them on the wrists of his children. For severe nervous diseases the ignorant farmer will take a watermelon, cut a hole in one end and place in it his rings and everything he has that passes as jewelry. He will then cut a smaller hole in the other end and catch the water as it passes through. This water when taken is supposed to quiet the distraught nervous system. One of the hardest tasks of the man or woman engaged in the work of evangelization is to explain why the Church that he represents does not pay more attention to physical welfare. A brief review of the principal diseases of Porto Rico will show the great need for medical missions. Infant Maladies. Half of the deaths occur among chil¬ dren under five years of age. The number equals the death rate of all ages in Continental United States. According to the survey of the Interchurch World Movement the rate of infant mortality in Porto Rico exceeds that of India. This is not due to the climate. There are no extremes of heat or cold, there are no sudden changes of temperature. It is an almost out of door existence for the youngsters. The con¬ ditions which contribute to this heavy mortality are poverty, ignorance, and lack of medical care. More medical missions would soon sweep away the deadly ignorance with which child life is surrounded in this tropical Island, and check the many diseases transmissible from parent to offspring. Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis ranks second in the mortal¬ ity table. Again, so far as the Island itself is concerned, there is no reason why the White Plague should cause such ravages. Malnutrition, poverty, and ignorance have combined again to overbalance these natural advantages. In an investi¬ gation in the city of San Juan a few years ago, it was found that in one street twelve people out of every hundred died of tuberculosis. Malaria. Malaria is not a malignant disease but in Porto Rico it is a constant deterrent to the life of the Island. Al- 38 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO though only a little over five per cent of the total mortality is attributable to malaria, few are the families which this malady has not attacked. Death rate and illness alone do not indicate the havoc wrought among the people afflicted. As an economic handicap its effect has been shown by an investi¬ gation made by Dr. D. L. Van Dine in a large plantation in Louisiana which contained seventy-four tenant families with a total population of two-hundred and ninety-nine. From May to October, 1914, there were nine-hundred and seventy days of actual illness from malaria reported to a doctor. Forty-eight of the seventy-four families were represented. There were also many other cases not reported to the phy¬ sician. Dr. Van Dine estimated that there were four-hun¬ dred and eighty-seven work days lost by cases not reported. Three-hundred and eighty-five days were lost on the part of the adults who assisted in taking care of the sick. During this period there were six and a half days lost for every case of malaria. Uncinariasis (Hookworm). The most prevalent dis¬ ease in Porto Rico is the so-called “Hookworm.” The investi¬ gating commission from the Rockefeller Foundation recently declared that the Island was “infested by hookworm.” “There is more hookworm in Porto Rico than in any other country with the possible exceptions of India and Ceylon.” Compara¬ tively few deaths are attributable directly to this malady. Its results are seen principally in the social and economic life of the Island. The power of resistance of the person afflicted is reduced almost to nothing. The great tubercular death- rate for instance, is due largely to this enervating effect of “hookworm.” Drs. Heiser and Grant of the Rockefeller Foundation in their report say: “There can be no question that wide-spread uncinariasis infection is a serious menace to the economic life of Porto Rico and if the people of the Island are to keep pace with their competitors, it is necessary that this unnecessary burden be lifted from their shoulders. Even light infection with TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 39 hookworm causes serious mental retardation. It is not too much to state that much of the money that is now being pro¬ vided for schools is lost because of the defective mentality produced by the hookworm disease which renders the pupils incapable of assimilating instruction.” The time for another active and continuous campaign against hookworm is ripe. Porto Rican Efforts. In combating transmissible dis¬ eases, the Department of Health has had conspicuous success. In different parts of the Island, there are special stations for the treatment of such diseases as tuberculosis, hookworm, and malaria. Against malaria and its mosquito, an active cam¬ paign is at present being carried on. The fight against the White Plague is also led by this Department, and although there is still a great deal of apathy to overcome on the part of the general public, much progress has been made. A few months ago $100,000.00 was raised by public subscription to augment the insular appropriation for a tuberculosis hos¬ pital. This hospital will consist of at least two hundred detached cottages. Each cottage to cost $3,000.00 and to accommodate four patients. Although the fight against hookworm does not proceed with the same pace as it did during the first years of the occupa¬ tion this enervating disease is being combated all over the Island. Stations for its treatment are operated in 37 dif¬ ferent towns and during the year there were 20,590 cases treated. With the help this campaign is likely to receive from the Rockefeller Foundation, it is hoped that this dis¬ ease will be stamped out. Every town has its commissioner of health, its sanitary inspector, and its municipal doctor, working under the Com¬ missioner of Health. However, the salary of the municipal doctor is so small that often he delegates his duties to a subordinate. Municipal Hospitals. Prompted by a noble impulse, but without the necessary knowledge or money to maintain them 40 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO the municipalities built hospitals. Though nominally in charge of the municipal doctors these hospitals are quite often given over to the care of a “practicante’'—a minor surgeon—and the sisters of the local Catholic Church, or convent. This is the only recourse the common people have for hospital treatment. The only good that can be said of these municipal hospitals is that they are one or two degrees better than the miserable houses from which most of the patients come. They are used as a last resort and the attitude of the people to them is indicated in the 1918 Report of the Commissioner of Health. Speaking of the difficulties of getting patients to attend his special malarial hospital in the town of Barceloneta, the Com¬ missioner said, “The stubborn and to a certain extent, natural resistance of the peasants to submit to medical treatment in the hospitals, can be explained by the fact that the hospitals maintained by the municipalities are generally in a deplorable condition, and the patient who is unfortunate enough to enter one for the first time firmly makes up his mind upon return¬ ing home not to avail himself again of this service. For this reason the physician in charge of the malarial hospital and the sanitary inspector were often compelled to request the assistance of the police to compel malarial patients to enter the hospital.” What the Missions Are Doing: San Juan Presbyterian Hospital. The work out of which grew the San Juan Pres¬ byterian Hospital, began in 1901, when Dr. Grace Atkins was sent to work among the poor of Santurce, a suburb of San Juan. A dispensary was soon established and in 1902 another missionary came to help. So great was the need for a hos¬ pital that in the year 1903, Dr. Atkins went to the States to appeal for the necessary funds to establish the institution. The money was forthcoming and in August of that year, work on the hospital was commenced, and was finished in a few months. This building was constructed of wood and con¬ tained 45 beds. The need of a larger and better equipped building, apparent from the beginning, was emphasized as TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 41 time passed because of its rapid deterioration and because of tropical rain and sun. The present hospital finished in 1917 was erected by the Woman’s Board of the Presbyterian Church with the help of a generous contribution by the Men’s Board from the Kennedy Fund. This building is constructed of reinforced concrete, has a capacity of 85 beds and is splen¬ didly equipped and appointed. Patients come from all over Porto Rico, and from the neighboring islands. During the year 1919, 20,308 persons were given hospital treatment while in the clinic, 27,813 cases were treated. Patients are expected to pay when able and from the ward cases in this same year $4,422.00 was received, from the private rooms $21,411.00 and from the dispensary $12,531.00. The total receipts for the year were approxi¬ mately enough to pay the operating expenses of year with the exception of the salaries. The last report of the institution says: “The purpose of the Hospital is to do Medical Missionary work; to afford a place where the sick poor can receive proper medical treat¬ ment under the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to furnish needed hospital accommodations to Porto Ricans and Americans who can afford to pay for them; and to train native girls to become skilled nurses to care for their own people throughout the Island.” The hospital has completely changed the social status of the nursing profession. In Spanish times, the professional nurse was ostracized from the social life of the Island. Prac¬ tically the whole of the work was done by the Catholic sis¬ ters who, though inspired by the best of motives, lacked lamentably when it came to training and ability. Today the social barrier has been almost completely broken down. Girls from the best families have taken their training as nurses at this institution. Upwards of a hundred girls have graduated from the training school. Presbyterian Hospital, Mayaguez. Until the earth¬ quake demolished the building, there was a Presbyterian hos- 42 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO pital of 21 beds in the city of Mayaguez. This hospital, with the whole of the densely populous western end of the Island to look after, was always taxed to capacity. Plans are already made to rebuild this plant. It is hoped within a few months to reopen work. What Other Denominations Are Doing. The Congre- gationalists have a hospital at Humacao. This hospital has a capacity of only 16 beds, but it reaches 2,000 patients a month through its dispensary service. The Episcopal Church maintains at Ponce a hospital with a capacity of 53 beds. Five doctors and 23 nurses are employed. It is the only mission hospital on the south coast of the Island and many hundreds of patients are benefited by its ministry. The United Brethren Church is planning medical service at two centers at each of which they expect to place a doctor and three trained Porto Rican nurses. In this manner they hope to be able to cover the entire territory for which their denomination is responsible. Extension of Medical Missions Essential. The medi¬ cal work in Porto Rico should be extended. Of this fact every worker, native or continental, is convinced. To under¬ take the big evangelistic campaigns called for by the programs of the forward looking movements of the different churches and ignore the acute and pressing need of medical missions would be to court failure, and to be blind to the example of the great Physician. CHAPTER V Educational and Community Work (a) EDUCATIONAL Neither in the history of the United States, nor in the history of Latin America is there anything that will quite compare with the educational progress of Porto Rico since the American Occupation. Less than a quarter of a century ago the school system was church ridden in its operation and mediaeval in its organization. Today it is the most free and democratic thing in the life of the Island. When the Americans took possession, they found in most towns school boards composed of the Alcalde (mayor), the local priest, and the heads of three families. These local school boards had practically no funds at their disposal, and as a result teachers remained unpaid many months. The sub¬ jects taught were reading, writing, elementary arithmetic, cate¬ chism, and Spanish grammar. The classification of the pupils was left to the teachers, and as a rule there were only four grades in each school. As to the method of teaching, the invariable rule was for the student to learn by heart the text¬ book assignment, and the highest mark was given to the stu¬ dent who omitted the least words in reciting the lesson. “Cor¬ poral punishment, abnormal positions, and detention after school were the most common forms of punishment used.” A good summary of the antiquated methods is given by Dr. Lindsey, the second Commissioner of Education under Ameri¬ can rule: “The work done under the Spanish school system scarcely constituted anything worthy of being called a school. There was no uniform course of study, no attempt at rules, regula¬ tions, or order; no thought of the rights of the child; no endeavor to apply pedagogical principles or to furnish teach¬ ers with an adequate equipment for their work. A rural teacher lived with his family in the school house and did as 44 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO he pleased with his pupils, frequently not teaching them at all himself, but hiring a substitute or delegating one of the older and brighter pupils to teach under his general instruction, while he drew his salary and sometimes absented himself from school for considerable periods. There were but two school supervisors for the entire Island and they made but one visit a year to each school, chiefly for the purpose of exam¬ ining the pupils in the catechism and doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.” From this condition which prevailed in 1899 remarkable progress has been made. In the 1919 report the present Com¬ missioner tabulates the advance in the following lucid manner: Two Decades of Educational Progress in Porto Rico. Population . Of school age . Attending school . Of school age not in school. Teachers . District supervisors . Rural barrios without schools.... Public school buildings . Rented buildings . Total schoolrooms . School expenditures . For elementary schools . For high schools. For university . Expenditure per inhabitant . Percentage of adult illiteracy ; 1898-99 1918-19 Increase 953,243 1,263,474 310,231 322,393 434,381 111,231 *21,873 160,794 138,921 300,520 273,587 t26,933 525 2,984 2,459 16 41 25 426 20 1406 0 529 529 All 1,195 .... 525 2,923 +2,398 $288,008 $2,467,703 $2,179,605 274,203 2,077,903 1,803,700 0 128,306 128,306 0 162,232 162,232 $0.30 $1.94 $1.64 1899 . 79.9% 1910 . 66.5% 1919 (estimate) . 54.0% There still remains a great deal to be done for the educa¬ tional welfare of the Island. Over half of the population can¬ not read or write, and there is still a third of the population of school age who do not attend school. This illiteracy and the absence from school of so large a proportion of the chil¬ dren is not due to a lack of desire for more educational facili¬ ties. Dr. Miller, the present Commissioner says: “The best • One report gives enrollment as 29,182. t Decrease. t Includes rented rooms. TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 45 evidence that the American school system established in Porto Rico is successful is the constant and increasing desire of the people to see it extended. The requests for additional schools are far in excess of the present ability of the people to sup¬ ply and maintain.” Mission Schools. During the first years of occupancy the mission schools aimed to do almost the same work as the public schools. As the school system developed the emphasis has been rather to supplement than to duplicate the work of the Department of Education. The educational institutions of the Protestant Mission seek to supply a need that the Insular authorities make no pretense of meeting. Pol5rtechnic Institute. Polytechnic Institute was inaugu¬ rated in the year 1912 by Rev. J. W. Harris, the Presbyterian missionary of the San German district as a part of his regular missionary duties, with funds which he raised in Porto Rico and in the United States. Four years later the work had so developed that he relinquished his other missionary duties and devoted himself to the development and supervision of the school. The object of this school is to develop the mental, moral and physical welfare of its students. The courses of instruc¬ tion include the regular grammar and high school courses with additional work in Bible and manual training. The cur¬ riculum has not only been approved by the Insular Depart¬ ment of Education, but has received the warm commenda¬ tion of educational authorities in the United States. Gradu¬ ates of the high school course can enter without examina¬ tion many of our northern colleges. There are three things in which this school is unique. The first is the inexpensive nature of the institution. For fifteen dollars a month a student receives his instruction, his food, his laundry, and his room. In some cases this amount is still further reduced by scholarships to properly qualified boys and girls. In a land where the old Spanish idea of education for the wealthy held sway, this factor is a veritable boon for 46 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO the ambitious youth of the Island. Young people will often come to the Institute for admittance with nothing but the clothes on their back, and after they are in the school by dint of their industry, will scrape together the few dollars that will maintain them through their course of study. Another innovation of the Polytechnic Institute to the edu¬ cational life of the Island is the requirement that each stu¬ dent, boy or girl, shall do at least three hours of manual work every day. In a land and in a civilization where education was supposed to raise one above manual labor, this feature was startling, but realizing its cultural and disciplinary values, the wealthiest families are now sending their boys and girls to the Institute. There is nothing indefinite about this manual work; the entire kitchen and laundry force is made up of the girls of the school while the boys build the roads, cultivate the fields, and construct the buildings of the institution. The third definite contribution of the Institute is that of co-education. The Polytechnic Institute is the only co-edu- cational boarding school in Latin America. Its success can be judged by the fact that until a few years ago the education of women in any kind of public school was frowned upon. At the time of the American occupation in 1898 there were only 7,158 girls enrolled in the public schools of the whole Island while in one municipality there was not a girl enrolled. In the eight years of the Institute’s history, there has not been a serious disciplinary problem because of the co-educational nature of the Institute. On the other hand, distinct advan¬ tages in the way of a normal social life have arisen from it. At present the Institute begins its course of study in the fifth grade and continues through the high school. It has already graduated some fifty young people from the secondary school and a larger number from the eighth grade. The graduates go directly into business, or continue their course in the col¬ leges of the States, or enter some local professional school. There is a great demand for a Christian college in Porto Rico from churches and general public alike. “La Universidad de TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 47 las Antillas” has a ring about it that particularly appeals to the ears of these insular people. That such a University should be developed from the present Polytechnic Institute is a point upon which every mission worker is agreed. Evangelical Seminary of Porto Rico. The training of a native ministry is a task that faces any mission from its incipiency. As the work "develops the scope and method of the training varies. In the early days instruction received from individual missionaries sufficed. Later training schools were established; and finally, when the work warranted it, a regular theological seminary arose with prescribed courses of study and entrance requirements. The last stage of this development in Porto Rico was reached after twenty years of missionary work. In the fall of 1919 and in the town of Rio Piedras near the University of Porto Rico, the Evangelical Seminary of Porto Rico was opened. The seminary is a cooperative effort of the Baptist, Congre¬ gational, Disciple, Presbyterian, Methodist, and United Breth¬ ren churches. The new institution opened with twenty-five students with a perfect spirit of good fellowship between the representatives of the different churches. This piece of cooperative work brought to the evangelistic work of the Island some very definite benefits: 1. Better instruction than was possible in )the smaller institutions. 2. The educational advantages of the nearby University. 3. The placing of Porto Rico in the van of the Latin American evangelical educational forces. 4. A great impetus to the development of a native uni¬ versity. A high school course, or its equivalent is required for entrance. This, for Porto Rico in its present stage of educational development, is a rather high standard, although it may be raised still higher in the near future. Graduates from the different training schools that formed the new union are already filling the important pastorates of the island. Their success may be indicated by the fact 48 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO that in one mission in 1914 there were twelve continental missionaries while at present (1920) there are only four. The places of the other eight have been taken by the young seminary graduates. The duties of a missionary are largely pastoral. He is responsible for a local church and its sur¬ rounding territory. This pastoral work, naturally can be done much better by native Porto Ricans,—they know the language and the people better. Our present union seminary should give us more and better trained men for this kind of work. The demand for more workers to thoroughly evangelize the Island cannot possibly be met for many years. In addi¬ tion to this Porto Rico has been alloted the task of evan¬ gelizing the neighboring island of Santo Domingo. Its strategic position from a mission standpoint makes the Evangelical Seminary of Porto Rico the logical center to train Mission workers for the whole of Central America and the Spanish West Indies. What Other Denominations Are Doing. Recently the Baptist Woman’s Board has opened the Hostal House at Rio Piedras, designed to provide a home for girls attend¬ ing the University of Porto Rico. The building cost about $30,000.00 and will accommodate 30 girls. It contains sleep¬ ing rooms, large parlor and commodious porches. At Santurce the Blanche Kellogg Institute, established by her father as a memorial to Blanche Kellogg, is a seminary for young women giving them the equivalent of a high school course, preparing them for home-making and training some as pastors’ assistants and missionary workers. About 20 girls are in attendance. This Institute is maintained by the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church, but nearly every denomination on the Island is rep¬ resented among the students enrolled. Parochial Schools. Although the emphasis in the mis¬ sionary educational work has been to supplement the work of the Department of Education, many of our Protestant churches have opened schools that practically duplicate the TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 49 public schools for the first grades. The churches have done this because of the inability of the Department of Educa¬ tion to provide sufficient schools and teachers. These paro¬ chial schools receive a great deal of help from local citi¬ zens interested in the educational development of the Island. Very little of the financial support of these schools comes from the mission boards. Their great value from a mission standpoint is that the church is able to reach hundreds of children who otherwise could never be reached. Other than the development of the institutions which now exist there is no big educational program on the part of the evangelical churches of Porto Rico, not because they believe that the present condition of the Island is satisfactory; but because they believe that with adequate support the Insular Department of Education can cope with the situation better than the churches. The evangelical workers are enthusias¬ tically behind the commissioner of education in his recom¬ mendations for special federal aid to develop the present sys¬ tem. In his 1919 report he says; “The material resources of the people of Porto Rico are not sufficient to extend and support the present school system in a manner adequate to solve their educational problems. The great defect of the system is insufficient schools rather than deficiency of organization and method. More schools, installed in better buildings specially constructed and provided with modern furniture and equipment require the expendi¬ ture of money that is not and will not be available from insular revenues for many years to come. Porto Rico’s only hope is to secure Eederal aid for the extension and support of public education. Now that the subject of Federal aid to the States is receiving the attention of Congress it is vitally important that the American citizens of Porto Rico should not be overlooked.” (b) COMMUNITY WORK The distressing economic condition of Porto Rico has been the source of more recent publicity for the country than any 50 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO other factor. Within the short space of three months, in the year 1920, two scathing reports were issued by the Ameri¬ can Federation of Labor and the United States Department of Labor respectively. In the preamble of the Federation of Labor’s report Porto Rico is described as a “living grave¬ yard,” while from the report of the Department of Labor the “New York World” is led to state editorially, that sugar was king of the Island and that poverty, hunger, disease, and death are his handmaidens. Missions and the Economic Situation. The Protes¬ tant missions of Porto Rico have a firm conviction that the thorough evangelization of the Island will bring in its train a better economic and industrial life. The Protestant churches have already developed a vital interest in the physical and social welfare of their people. This ,interest has expressed itself in establishing Orphanages, Day Nurseries, and Neigh¬ borhood Houses. Marina Neighborhood House. One of the oldest estab¬ lished community works is that conducted in the poorest sec¬ tion of Mayaguez by the Woman’s Board of Home Mis¬ sions of the Presbyterian Church. It is the Marina Neigh¬ borhood House founded in a very modest way by the present directress in the year 1907. It has developed to such an extent that at present there are four American workers, six Porto Rican workers and a number of people, including a phy¬ sician, who devote part of their time to this neighborhood work. In 1907 the enterprise was housed in a small rented building; at present the mission covers a whole city block. The work is divided into the departments of Kindergarten, Primary, Industrial Classes, Day Nursery, and Dispensary. The plant includes lecture rooms, living quarters for the workers, a community laundry, and a model cottage. The Day Nursery was begun a number of years ago as a cooperative effort of some charitably disposed ladies of Mayaguez who still provide the necessary fi/nances. The object of the Nursery is to care for the very small children TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 51 while their mothers are working for the support of the family. Fifty children are cared for daily. The Industrial Department almost exclusively concerns itself with the development of those industries native to the Island. The head worker of the Neighborhood House says: “Under the Spanish rule, many had learned in the convents to do beautiful embroidery and drawn work. The daughters of these women had a like desire to learn. Instead of the convent they came to the Protestant Mission where they were not only organized into classes, but were brought into surroundings where they could hear the ‘Word able to make wise unto salavation.’ ” Since the establishment of this depart¬ ment more than two hundred girls have been taught to do this native work in such an acceptable manner that it has a market all over the United States. There is always a long list of unfilled orders. A Dispensary is conducted with a registered nurse who devotes her whole time to the work and a doctor who devotes about three hours a day. At this dispensary 1,700 patients were treated last year, and the nurse made 3,000 visits. When the patient is able to pay something for the treatment he receives, the money is accepted, but ability to pay is by no means a condition to this healing ministry. In the Primary and Kindergarten departments the Neigh¬ borhood House supplies to the immediate community what the public school authorities cannot give. In the school year 1920-1921 there was an average attendance per day in the Primary department of 43 children and in the Kindergarten of 50. A summer course for the training of kindergarten¬ ers is now a regular feature. An expert comes from the States, and gives a short course in kindergarten methods to the Porto Rican and American workers. The courses are graded so that with two or three summers’ study a girl receives a careful training. The Marina Neighborhood House is thus the mother of many kindergartens in different parts of the Island. 52 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO Neighborhood House, Aguadilla, The other Neighbor¬ hood House under the direction of the Presbyterian Woman’s Board does for the ancient city of Aguadilla what the Marina Neighborhood House does for Mayaguez. Local conditions change the nature of the work somewhat. Since Aguadilla is the center of the native hand-made lace industry, a class in lace making under the direction of an expert is one of the principal features of the industrial department. In this class the girls are taught the art from the very beginning, great care being taken in the exact nature of the work and in its cleanliness. Many a girl, by means of this class, instead of becoming a mediocre lace-maker has become so gifted that orders for her work come from all over the United States— orders that keep her busy from one week’s end to the next. Aguadilla, moreover, is the center of the basket-making of the Island. Under the auspices of the Neighborhood House there are also classes in this work. Baskets of all shapes and for all purposes are made from the native palm. The products are marketed in the States and sent directly to the consumer without the agency of middlemen. The Neighborhood House has a well organized Kinder¬ garten and Day Nursery. There are 40 children in attend¬ ance in the former and 20 in the latter. This department is situated in the poorest section of the city and is of incal¬ culable benefit to children who otherwise would be running wild in the streets or accompanying their parents to some tobacco factory. One of the most distinct contributions to the city and to the missionary problem is the Dispensary of this Neighbor¬ hood House. The municipal authorities have definitely rec¬ ognized the worth of this Dispensary. It is conducted on a plan by which the municipality provides the physician, while the Mission provides the nurse and equipment. The suc¬ cess of this arrangement can be judged by the fact that the people of the town and the municipal authorities wish to extend it to include a hospital of a hundred beds. TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 53 It need scarcely be added that the Christian community work of these Neighborhood Houses not only benefits the vicinity in which they are located, but is of immense help to the local churches. Year in and year out these consecrated workers demonstrate to the Church the fundamental Chris¬ tian virtues of patience, faithfulness, and self-sacrificing devotion. What Other Denominations Are Doing. The Metho¬ dist Episcopal Church maintains the George Robinson Or¬ phanage for girls at San Juan. This institution was estab¬ lished in 1902 through the generosity of Mr. Robinson. The girls come from the respectable poor, to whom the death of one or more parents often means starvation or a life of shame. Here the girls are cared for, protected and trained to take up some occupation. Mr. Robinson has also estab¬ lished an orphanage for boys on an agricultural school basis. There are always some 30 boys in the orphanage being pre¬ pared to make their living by farming. A Child Welfare Society is conducted at Santurce in con¬ nection with the Blanche Kellogg Institute (Congregational). The Society ministers to the poor of the neighborhood, par¬ ticularly the children, giving them medical service and milk, either free or at a nominal cost. The American Baptist Home Mission Society has work¬ ers stationed at Ponce, Saguas, Rio Piedras, Santurce and San Juan. These workers visit the homes systematically, con¬ ducting prayer and Bible reading with mothers and maintain¬ ing industrial classes with the children. The women workers of the Lutheran Church and of the Disciples of Christ each maintain a kindergarten in the city of Bayamon. At Ponce a kindergarten is maintained by the Christian Church, which is also establishing there an indus¬ trial work. The United Brethren Church, one of the largest and best organized churches on the Island, conducts an efficient com¬ munity work at Ponce. 54 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO The Y. M, C. A. has a well organized association in San Juan. In 1920 it enrolled 620 members. It conducts physical culture, educational, social and religious classes. The work is very popular and it is hoped that similar associations may be instituted in all the principal cities of Porto Rico. CHAPTER VI Evangelistic Missions* Distribution of Forces. For the work of evangelization Porto Rico is divided into denominational zones of activities. At the outset of Protestant missionary work, each denomina¬ tion was assigned a portion of the Island with the under¬ standing that it would not encroach upon its sister denomi¬ nation’s territory. While this arrangement did not provide for organic union of the evangelical forces it did provide a practical and economical basis of co-operation, and it pre¬ vented overlapping and duplication of effort. The American Missionary. The work of the American missionary has undergone a great change in these twenty years of occupation. Porto Rico is an ideal example o'f “the church increasing and the mission decreasing.” In the early days the entire church work was done by the continental missionary. As the work developed, it was more and more taken over by the native Porto Rican ministers. This process has been particularly marked during the last five years. The churches have become increasingly self-supporting while the young Porto Ricans who have been graduated from the Semi¬ nary have proved themselves worthy and acceptable leaders among their own people. The Porto Rican Minister. The native ministry is di¬ vided into two main divisions. First, the untrained but ex¬ perienced pastors—who have worked by the side of the con¬ tinental missionaries for some years, and have received their qualifications in the school of hard knocks. The other the trained pastors—the younger element, many of whom have not * Limited space necessitates the confinement of this chapter to evangelistic work conducted in the western section) of the Island, for whioh the Preisby- terdan Church is solely responsible. Accounts of the work oif other denomi¬ nations in their respective sections may be had from their denominational headquarters. 56 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO only received their schooling and special training in mission¬ ary institutions, but have been brought up from early child¬ hood in the Church. Men of the first type have charge of some of the most important churches of the Island and their work speaks volumes of praise to the early continental mis¬ sionaries. By virtue of youth and training the second type of worker is naturally coming to the fore as the years go by. Replacements in the important fields are almost always filled by the young men who have been under the observation of the various churches and missions through their boyhood and youth. Sooner or later this type of minister will dominate the situation. City Work. The services of the Protestant churches in the cities in Porto Rico are similar to the services in the cities of the north—with one exception. There is no difficulty in Porto Rico in getting people to hear the Message for regu¬ lar services, and for special services you may be sure of a full church. It is this phase of the work that appeals mostly to visitors from the north. They come expecting to find in the Protestant churches small groups of people brought together by all sorts of inducements. They are greatly surprised to see the enthusiasm, spontaneity, and interest of the Porto Rican in his church. Quite recently one of these visitors attended the prayer meeting of a church in an inland town and after the service she said; “The Wednesday before I left the States I attended prayer meeting at the First Pres¬ byterian Church of -” (she mentioned one of the largest suburban churches of New York). “I counted the people and there were just the number you have here tonight.” Shortly afterward a minister from a large Philadelphia church was invited to preach in this church. Rather reluctantly he con¬ sented and, through an interpreter, preached at a Mother’s Day service to an audience that crowded the church and to scores of people that were packed around windows and doors. Speaking of it afterward he exclaimed, “What a wonderful experience it was. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.” TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 57 Country Work. The greatest influence of the evangelical churches in Porto Rico is in the country. It is among the people of the rural sections, who form 80% of the popula¬ tion, that the Protestant churches have rendered greatest ser¬ vice and have found their greatest opportunity. The country work is organized with the ideal of giving every inhabitant of the Island an opportunity of hearing the Gospel periodically. Many preachers make itineraries of several days’ duration, visiting homes during the day and conducting ser¬ vices at night at some central house. From the seed sown in this manner come surprising harvests. The preacher is almost certain to be invited to repeat his visit and frequently a per¬ manent preaching point results. The country services of the evangelical churches are the only opportunity for worship the jibaro or peasant has. In many instances people walk over ten miles each week across mountain and stream to some preaching center. Occasionally an incident like the following cheers the heart of a pastor. At Sabbath school in town Sunday morning the minister was surprised to see a man who for some time had been attending every meeting that had been held at a backwoods place some fifteen miles away. Barefooted he had walked this distance over mountainous paths and across raging rivers. He had come to ask the missionary to establish a permanent preaching point at his home, and to offer himself for mem¬ bership in the church. With such demonstration as this to prove the sincerity of his profession of faith he was received. Today he is a church officer, acting as an under-shepherd to a little band of Christians in that mountain recess. The cottage service is very popular, and often is the only kind of service that can be had. With his customary gen¬ erosity the Porto Rican will offer the use of his house for “los protestantes” even though he is not a believer. There are some distinct advantages to this plan—chiefly the intimate contact one gets with the people and their problems. In this balmy land the open air service is much used. It is inspiring 58 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO to attend an evangelistic service conducted at some plantation on the large concrete drying floor. In pioneer work such as this there is practically no physical equipment. It is a clear demonstration of the power of the simple Gospel. Some of the workers are using the stereop- ticon. This makes a forceful method of presenting religious truth, specially in the opening of new work. Church Membership. Church membership in Porto Rico is a more direct severance from the former life than it is in most places on the continent. In only a very few cases is it the result of a childhood where church and home have united to make church membership a natural step in the development of the individual. It is about as opposite a thing to the nominal adherence to the Catholic Church through infant bap¬ tism as could be imagined. The preparation for Protestant membership differs in form as the denominations differ in creed and custom. All, however, agree in spirit. Churches with the Methodist form of government find their period of probation very effective in Porto Rico. Other churches have their catechumen classes which last from three to six months. The influence of the evangelical churches is not confined to their members. There are on every hand those people who attend the services regularly, who call themselves Protestants, but do not unite with the church. Taking these facts into consideration an estimate was made about a year ago based on an extensive survey. It gave Protestant population of Porto Rico as 12% of the entire population. This does not include such organizations as the Free Masons and Free Thinkers and a host of indifferents who, because of their anti-catholic attitude, are much more sympathetic with the Evangelical point of view than with the Roman Catholic. Self-Support. The phase that has most encouraged the workers on the field and the contributing Boards and Socie¬ ties has been the distinct advance made toward self-support by the different churches. Of course a church independent of TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO 59 outside financial support and direction has been the ideal ever since the work began. Most of the stronger denominations have programs and schedules arranged that will render the present organized churches free from outside support in ten, fifteen, or twenty years. There will be a need for missionary work in Porto Rico for many generations to come but it is hoped, particu¬ larly by the native worker, that the native church will soon demonstrate its ability to conduct its own aflfairs. One of the greatest aids to this end is the essentially patri¬ otic spirit of the Porto Rican. “El Sosten Propio”—self sup¬ port—has come to be the slogan at every denominational and interdenominational gathering. The Strategic Value of Porto Rico. Even before self- support is reached the Protestant Christians of Porto Rico are looking toward the service which they in turn hope to render to their less fortunate neighbors. For within a radius of 1,500 miles, lie the Central American States, and Hayti, Santo Domingo, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. Within these countries are literally millions of human beings whose need for education, health, and the inspiration of a vital reli¬ gion is vast and urgent. These people are also Latins and the Porto Ricans for that reason have a unique opportunity as well as a responsibility to pass on to them in turn the bless¬ ings they have received from Protestant Missions. The num¬ ber of calls for help are increasing as the years go by. The most insistent of these calls just now and the one that con¬ stitutes a veritable cry from Macedonia is from the little Republic of Santo Domingo. Since the American occupation of this Island Republic and the opening of American indus¬ tries, Porto Ricans by the thousands have crossed the narrow Mona Channel to make their livelihood. A large number of members of the different evangelical churches were among the emigrants. These folk missed their church homes. At a big sugar center several of them organized a Protestant Church which is today fighting the fight of all infants for 60 TWENTY YEARS IN PORTO RICO survival. It is appealing to the Protestant Churches of Porto Rico to help it in the struggle. And the Protestant Churches of Porto Rico are sending what aid they can in money and men. So it is that the Gospel is spread; so it is that the leaven of the Kingdom works. i-* . Sv. ; ■ > AH