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Tuesday February 29, 1916
From The Labor World: Porto Rican Strikers Shot Down, Beaten, and Jailed,

The following is a report from the February 26th edition of Duluth's Labor World:

IT HAPPENED UNDER STARS
AND STRIPES
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Porto Rican Laborers Beaten With Cutlasses
As Chattel Slaves of South.
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AMERICAN TERRITORY RUN
BY FEUDAL LORDS
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Workingmen Who Dare to Rebel Given
Long Terms In Prison.
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.-President Gompers has received numerous letters of protest from Porto Rico trade unions against the treatment government officials and employers are according agricultural workers who struck last month for better conditions.

The letters are written in Spanish, and all tell the story of brutality, tragedy and woe in the lives of Porto Rico workers.

The following English translation of one letter-from Caguas, Porto Rico-indicates the sufferings of these workers, who are jailed, beaten and shot because they dare strike:

Corporations Rule.

The islands of Porto Rico are being governed by large corporations that radiate throughout the country, and these practically dominate and dispose of the earth and of its services, the unfortunate day laborers. The countrymen here have no homes and must live submitting to the caprice of the feudal lord who allows them to live on his land, like in the medieval ages, with the condition that these pariah (outcasts) cannot and would not dare to raise their looks to the face of their masters, and if they should dare to ask for any improvement, or declare a strike, then be thrown out of the hut in which they live and must wander without bread and shelter.

Now in January, 1916, the countrymen were again reduced to the necessity of striking, asking larger wages and less hours of work, because the patrons did not accept the arbitration proposed by the department of labor, and the attacks and the killings has been repeated.

Union Offices Raided.

At Bayamon the house of the free federation (the office of the union) was attacked by the police meanwhile the strikers were holding a peaceful meeting. Various of the strikers and federationists were thrown into prison, sentenced from 10 days to two years in prison. The manifestations of the strikers were dissolved, and the police attacked them and dispersed them with shots.

At Rio Grande they were badly beaten, and hardly are they permitted to cross the public highways without being in danger of their lives. The strikebreakers go about with knives, protected by the overseers, foremen and public police.

A manifestation that was going from Loiza to Rio Grande was dispersed by shots and cutlasses, resulting in two deaths and many wounded seriously.

In Juana Diaz the police killed one and wounded 18.

Conditions in Porto Rico have been protested by recent conventions of the American Federation of Labor, to which these workers are affiliated. President Gompers has submitted these protests to the proper authorities at Washington.

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SOURCE
Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Feb 26, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/78642069/

IMAGE
Labor World, Masthead, Feb 26, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/78642190

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Sadly, a long search revealed no photos of this great strike of sugar workers in Puerto Rico which began during January of 1916. Request for aid on behalf of the strikers and their families were carried in various labor newspapers and union journals, including this one from the Cigar Makers Journal of May 1916:

THE PORTO RICAN LABORERS OUTRAGED AND OPPRESSED.
An Appeal to the Workingmen's Conscience.

To all the Laboring People of America and the Rest of the World.

Dear Fellow Workers:

The Free Federation of Laborers of Porto Rico, affiliated to the American Federation of Labor, representing practically the large masses of the wealth producers of the Island, since 1916 has determined, considering the high price at which sugar is quoted in the American market, to declare on strike generally throughout the sugar producing regions of Porto Rico and is now out for wages amounting to $1 per day for each eight hours.

The chaotic situation that has developed last year was investigated by the United States Industrial Relations Commission, and all the facts, crimes, suppressions of political rights and tyranny industrial and gubernatorial were told in Mr. Basil M. Manly's report.

The same conditions have occurred this year as we shall see from the following:

The Almighty Dollar Is Crushing Humble Labor.

More than 20,000 agricultural workers went to strike in January, 1916, for better conditions, wages and eight hours. Police and local magistrates favoring "sugar trust."

In Juana Diaz, police without excuse fired against strikers and citizens killing one, two more died in hospital, wounded four women, two boys and ten men.

In Rio Grande, police fired, clubbed and cut strikers.

In Lolza, police fired and clubbed strikers, killing one like a dog and wounding several more.

In Areclbo, police fired and clubbed strikers, killing one and wounding many of them and also several arrests have been made. Also peaceful parades of defenseless women have been brutally disbanded by shots.

In Bayamon, police fired to the Assembly hall of the American Federation of Labor, breaking charters of Unions with bullets. Clubs and bullets are used freely to frighten poor laborers in the country. Parades are destroyed and hundreds of arrests have been made to justify local official barbarism.

Which Is the Economical Situation of the Island?

Producing masses oppressed and trampled with, absolutely restrained from lawfully fighting the monster monopolies, and as a result the reign of industrial tyranny and oppression is governing supreme over life and labor.

We are demanding a complete and full investigation of our resources and of the miserable conditions under which laborers work, by United States Congress, by means of an impartial, fair and unflinching commission, one without selfish motive or interest behind in the monopolies and underhand speculations which is bleeding to death the Island.

Urgent Appeal for Funds.

The law suits which the State Branch of the American Federation of Labor in Porto Rico has to sustain as well as the petitions for help from the mothers, children and other relatives of the persecuted, and the struggle we are expected to keep up so energetically to combat and overcome calls for a good deal of funds which we have not got. The most of these law suits are to come off before the Supreme Court of Porto Rico and some of them envolvlng constitutional rights will have to appear before the U. S. Supreme Court.

We earnestly demand the co-operation and financial assistance of all the labor organizations and of all the public spirited and generous men of our movement. This is the first time we seek financial assistance of the sister unions on the American continent.

A people struggling for its rights and public liberties, under horrible conditions of oppression and tyranny places its trust in your financial co-operation, and believes it will be cheerfully given. Responding in this wise to the great spirit of justice which has ever characterized your conduct, we hope to enlist your generous co-operation and that you will respond generously, we are as ever,

Yours fraternally,
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE FREE FEDERATION OF WORKINGMEN OF PORTO RICO,
RAFAEL ALONSO, Sec. Gen.
SANTIAGO IGLESIAS, President.
NOTE — All contributions should be sent to Rafael Alonso, Gen. Sec. Federacion Libre, Box 704, San Juan, P. R.

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SOURCE
Cigar Makers Official Journal
(Chicago, Illinois)
-May 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=5u1NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...
"CORRESPONDENCE-THE PORTO RICAN LABORERS OUTRAGED AND OPPRESSED."
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=5u1NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

IMAGE
Cigar Makers International Union of America, Emblem
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=5u1NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

See also:
Commission on industrial relations: final report and testimony United States.
Commission on Industrial Relations
-ed by Francis Patrick Walsh, Basil Maxwell Manly
D.C. Gov. Print. Office, 1916
https://books.google.com/books?id=PeweAQAAMAAJ
Labor Conditions in Porto Rico, 11,027-11,224
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=PeweAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

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