ABOUT PUERTO RICO

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 12, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 37.

ABOUT PUERTO RICO.

MR. BRAU, a Puerto Rican historian, who is himself a Catholic, is quoted by the Missionary Review as follows:—

“Education, both primary and secondary, needs to be provided. At first I thought the government would be able, in a short time, to provide all that is necessary, but I have changed my mind on that point. It will take years, with immense sums of money, to supply the needed accommodations. Meantime the churches might do a vast amount of good by opening both primary and secondary schools in certain localities. The high schools already opened under missionary auspices are crowded. Parents are very anxious for their children to learn English, and there are many who can afford to pay for advanced instruction for boys and girls who have already a fair primary education.

“Medical work ought also to be begun. There is a great deal of suffering among the poor for lack of medical attendance. All the municipalities pay 'titular doctors' for service of the poor, but the poor get, for various reasons, little attention. If the municipal doctor shows reluctance to respond to a call, the people hesitate to go to him again. They are sensitive, and never demand as a right what the law provides for them. I questioned many of them in the poor quarter of Arecibo, Yauco, and other cities. Some said that the titular doctors were unwilling to come to their homes but would give them medicine if they asked for it. They seemed to have a horror of going to the hospital. They would shake their heads, and say, 'People who go in there come out dead.' Forbidding-looking places they were, some of them. One of the best physicians in the island told me that hardly one person out of a hundred among the peasant class has a doctor at death. These common people are full of sympathy for one another, and a kindness done to them would win their hearts. When one of them is sick, the neighbors will unite in care of him, and furnish him food out of their own scant store.

“Something ought also to be done for homeless children. There is a Catholic orphanage in San Juan, but in many parts of the island no public provision is made for bereaved or forsaken little ones. Small homes are needed in many places for the care of these unfortunates, who will otherwise grow up vagabonds, if they grow up at all.

“There is a loud call for immediate Christian and charitable work in Puerto Rico, particularly among the peasant class. Much could be accomplished for humanity and the Master. There are masses of people who are practically without religious instruction and wholesome religious influence. They can be won, if taken in time.”