Senator CARROLL. To give you greater economic stability in your own government?

Commissioner FERNÓS-ISERN. That is right, but not unless Congress would pass upon it again and authorize it.

Senator CARROLL. We will discuss that later. Thank you very much.

Senator JACKSON. Thank you, Senator Carroll.

Do you have any further questions? Senator Gruening?

Senator GRUENING. I would like to pursue a little bit the philosophical inquiry which the chairman of the subcommittee raised, dealing with the general question as to whether the Congress can permanently abdicate any of its powers to change legislation which it has enacted. I notice that in Public Law 600, the language is:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, fully recognizing the principle of government by consent, this Act is now adopted in the nature of a compact so that the people of Puerto Rico may organize a government pursuant to a constitution of their own adoption.

It says, "in the nature of a compact.'

In this bill, which I take it was drawn up by the people of Puerto Rico, we have the language providing, "Amendment to the compact." There has been a change in emphasis in the act, Public Law 600. We refer to it as "in the nature of a compact," and now we have it as a "compact."

I would like to have it clear whether it is a commitment in the nature of a treaty which cannot be changed except bilaterally.

Commissioner FERNÓS-ISERN. The law of 1950 was first a law, but its terms did not become effective until the people of Puerto Rico accepted them. Then they became a compact. That is why we refer to the compact now.

But the Congress started with a law embodying the terms of a compact. The compact came into existence upon their approval by the people of Puerto Rico.

Senator GRUENING. Do you see any difference in the shade of meaning between the language "in the nature of a compact" and the simple word "compact"?"

Commissioner FERNÓS-ISERN. No, Senator. What I think is, that the law had to state this in the way it did. Although it was a law it was enacted with the effect of a compact, in the nature of a compact. Senator GRUENING. I have no further questions.

Senator JACKSON. Thank you, Senator Gruening.

Governor, we are very pleased to have you back with us again today. You may proceed in your own way.

Governor MUÑOZ-MARÍN. Thank you, Senator.

STATEMENT BY THE HON. LUIS MUÑOZ-MARÍN, GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, ACCOMPANIED BY HIRAM R. CANCIO, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, AND HIRAM TORRES, ASSISTANT TO THE GOVERNOR, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO

Governor MUÑOZ-MARÍN. Mr. Chairman and the members of the committee, I wish to thank the committee for its interest and courtesy in affording me the opportunity to appear before it in support of S. 2023 which embodies the proposals of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, by Joint Resolution No. 2 of its legislative assembly, for clarification of the compact existing between the Federal Union and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and for certain modifications of its provisions. In the name of the Commonwealth, of its legislature and its people, as well as in my own, I express our deep appreciation to the committee.

The Congress of the United States and the people of Puerto Rico can feel a legitimate pride in having created the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, in having made, in a typically dynamic American way, an adaptation to the Federal form of government that encompasses a new, creative termination of a colonial situation for a community beset by economic scarcity; and in doing so bypassing a narrow nationalism as well as an assimilation to what has been the only pattern of the American Union. Puerto Rican conditions were unadaptable to both solutions. A state, in the generic sense of the word-a people organized politically to govern themselves-was created in 1952 on the basis of an enabling act, approved by the Congress in the nature of a compact and ratified by the people of Puerto Rico at the polls, on the basis of which a constitutional government was established within terms of association with the Federal Union. The process was as follows:

The issue of what kind of political status the people of Puerto Rico wanted was the main decision debated and called for in the election campaign of 1948. Three political parties contested that election. The Popular Democratic Party stood for the basic outline of what later became the Commonwealth relationship; the Statehood Republican Party, in coalition with the Socialist and Reformist Parties, stood for classic federated statehood; the Independentist Party stood for independence. The Popular Democratic Party described the three solutions to the people as different in structure and content but equal, we may say equivalent, in political dignity. The Commonwealth would be a state associated with the Union in a new manner by compact and its creation would be based as in the case of a federated state, not on unilateral congressional action but on congressional action together with the action of the Puerto Rican voters, as it so took place.

The result of the election in round numbers was: The party proposing Commonwealth status, 392,000 votes; the coalition proposing federated statehood, 184,000 votes; the party proposing independence, 65,000 votes. In percentages, 61 percent, 29 percent, and 10 percent, respectively.

As a result of that mandate, our Resident Commissioner introduced in the House of Representatives what became Public Law 600, of 1950.

The legislation was sponsored in the Senate by Senators O'Mahoney of Wyoming and Butler of Nebraska. This law, as I have indicated, set in motion the process by which the Commonwealth was created. It also determined what the relationship between Puerto Rico and the Union would be. It did this by retaining, under the name of the Federal Relations Act, certain parts of the Organic Act of 1917, which in turn referred to the Organic Act of 1900. They were those not relating to the internal government of Puerto Rico-which would be established by the Commonwealth constitution. The effect of this was to continue in the Federal Government the functions relating to political and economic international relations, defense, currency, citizenship, Federal judiciary and generally the same powers as in regard to a classical state.

On the basis of this enabling act a constitutional convention was elected and it wrote and presented to the people a constitution which the voters overwhelmingly approved. The constitution came through the President to the consideration of Congress, in accordance with the terms of Public Law 600. The Congress approved it with certain conditions which the constitutional convention accepted. On the proudest day in Puerto Rican history-July 25th, 1952-I had the honor of raising the historic Puerto Rican flag created as a symbol of rebellion against tyranny during Spanish times-to the top of a flagpole erected on the left side of the one where the American flag flew, a symbol beloved by the Puerto Rican people. This was a proud day also for the Congress of the United States and for the American people as a whole.

Although the economic and fiscal relationship between Puerto Rico and the Federal Union remained the same, satisfactorily the same, as it had been since 1900, the spiritual energy released by having attained a status of political equality, based on an equivalent political dignity-the common denominator being the principles of command and consent-put a new drive into the great effort of the Puerto Rican people to conquer their age-old poverty, to defeat economic underdevelopment, to work at the creation of a civilization worthy of their heart's approval as well as of their proud association with the great American Republic.

This process, this adaptation of the American system to a complex and anguishing situation not otherwise solvable, had been made possible by a previous manifestation of the dynamic quality of that system, by its refusal to be rendered impotent by the emergence of new circumstances, by its capability for enlarging the scope of its great basic principles to include the new circumstances. Before 1898, the year in which new human communities of different cultural backgrounds and of complicated economic problems came under the sovereignty of the United States, only two political forms existed in the American system: incorporated territories and federated States. Under those two categories the American people were hamstrung to deal with a new situation to which those categories were entirely unsuited. The Congress created and the Supreme Court sustained the concept of unincorporated territory, which gave the Federal Government scope for what Justice Frankfurter later called creative statesmanship. It was this seed of wisdom planted in 1900 that made possible the full flowering and greater wisdom of the Commonwealth concept as developed in Puerto Rico.

We have seen the meaning of this to the spirit of the Puerto Rican people. A wider significance, related to the better understanding of what the United States means in the free world, can be derived from the fact that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, collaborating with the State Department at its own initiative, is conducting and constantly broadening a program of technical assistance for the benefit of other underdeveloped areas in Latin America, in Asia, in Africa, in some parts of Europe, which the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs has recognized, we are very proud to say, as an important contribution to the foreign policies of the United States. Close to 9,000 visitors from all over the world have availed themselves of this program in Puerto Rico and there is no question that, even with Puerto Rico's great economic progress, if the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States had not been one of basic political equality and dignity the effects of this program would not have been nearly as satisfactory and as useful as they have been. I am about to sign a new agreement with the International Cooperation Administration, which will make more effective the Commonwealth contribution, not only in money but in experience and services to the United States technical assistance program with Latin America and other regions.

A fact of fundamental significance connected with this is the resolution of the United Nations approved in 1953 to the effect that Puerto Rico had ceased to be a dependency under article 75 of the United Nations Charter and that therefore the United States was no longer obligated to render reports to that world body on Puerto Rico. The United States was rendering such reports with respect to Puerto Rico as a dependent area in the same manner that other nations were required to report concerning their colonies. The United States made this presentation to the United Nations at the request of the Commonwealth government. I quote from the memorandum of the United States to the United Nations on this subject:

With the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico the people of Puerto Rico have attained a full measure of self-government. *** By the various actions taken by the Congress and the people of Puerto Rico, Congress has agreed that Puerto Rico shall have, under the Constitution, freedom from control or interference by the Congress in respect of internal government and administration subject only to compliance with applicable provisions of the Federal Constitution, the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act and the acts of Congress authorizing and approving the constitution, as may be interpreted by judicial decision.

Mrs. Frances P. Bolton, a Member of Congress and a United States delegate to the United Nations, made clear the great constitutional changes which had occurred in Puerto Rico and spoke as follows:

The authority of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is not more limited than that of any State of the Union; in fact, in certain aspects is much wider. * * * It should be remembered that the functions of the Federal Government in Puerto Rico are carried out under the same laws and within the same constitutional limitations under which they are carried on in behalf of the States. This qualifies the exercise of Federal authority in Puerto Rico and protects the selfgoverning powers of Puerto Rico.

The Federal Relations Act to which reference has been made has continued provisions of political and economic union which the people of Puerto Rico have wished to maintain. In this sense the relationships between Puerto Rico and the United States have not changed. It would be wrong, however, to hold that because this is so and has been so declared in Congress, the creation of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico does not signify a fundamental change in the status of Puerto Rico (Report to the State Department of April 26, 1954, by Hon. Frances

P. Bolton and Hon. James P. Richards to the 83d Cong., 2d sess. on the 8th session of the United Nations, Government Printing Office, pp. 239–241).

The opposition that arose in the United Nations to the United States proposal that it cease reporting with respect to Puerto Rico was expressed by the Iron Curtain countries and a few others. Their position was that the arrangement, in effect, was a hoax; that the United States retained power at any time to terminate the compact and to prescribe laws for the internal government of Puerto Rico regardless of the compact. These assertions, as we have seen, were vigorously refuted by the United States representatives. The United Nations General Assembly in its eighth session adopted a resolution in which it asserted that it:

Recognizes that the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, by expressing their will in a free and democratic way, have achieved a new constitutional status; *** that, when choosing their constitutional and international status, the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have effectively exercised their right to self-determination; *** that, in the framework of their constitution and of the compact agreed upon with the United States of America, the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have been invested with attributes of political sovereignty which clearly identifies the status of self-government attained by the Puerto Rican people as that of an autonomous political entity; * * * that, due to these circumstances, the declaration regarding non-self-governing territories and the provisions established under it in chapter XI of the charter can no longer be applied to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

It is significant that after the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii became States the United States followed the same procedure before the United Nations that it had followed in the case of Puerto Rico 6 years before

On May 12 of this year, when the United States Government, through its representative in the Information Committee of the United Nations, Mr. Mason Sears, was making the same statement in regard to Alaska and Hawaii, we Puerto Ricans were proud to see our status described as not the same, of course, but equivalent to that of those two great new federated States of the Union. The United States representative said on that occasion:

The attainment of statehood by Alaska and Hawaii comes less than 6 years after the adoption of a United Nations resolution concerning the establishment of Puerto Rico and its 24 million people as a self-governing commonwealth, voluntarily associated by vote of its people in a compact with the United States (United States mission to the United Nations, press release No. 3181).

We have now had 7 years of experience under the compact. They have been years of considerable satisfaction. The governmental arrangement has worked well. In two cases, the Narcotic Control ct and the Technical Changes Act to the Internal Revenue Law, Congress had before it legislation that would be contrary to the provisions of the compact relationships, Puerto Rico not being subject to the application of the internal revenue laws of the United States. I am happy to report that in both instances the Congress made the applicability of the law to Puerto Rico conditional upon the consent of the Legislature of Puerto Rico. In both instances. the Commonwealth legislature took rapid affirmative action and the law became applicable in Puerto Rico in full consistency with the compact and on the basis of mutual consent.

What changes does S. 2023 propose to introduce into the present situation?

Senator O'MAHONEY. Governor, may I interrupt at this point?