Arson on Puerto Rico Governor ship

One hundred years ago today … The ocean liner Tanamo caught fire as it arrived in New York harbor, an assassination attempt, it was surmised, against one passenger, E. Montgomery Reily, the appointed Governor of Puerto Rico. The Tanamo, stocked with fruit, would dock at Pier 7 at Rector Street, unload its cargo and 20 passengers, but subsequently sink. 

Reily had been appointed governor by President Harding and immediately made himself an enemy of many by refusing to appoint members of the Independista Party to Government positions by moving to end instruction in Spanish in public schools. New York Puerto Ricans took the lead in opposing him:

Early in September the Porto Rican colony in this city asked President HARDING to remove E. MONTGOMERY Reily from the Governorship of Porto Rico. It was charged that he had refused to appoint members of the Unionist or Independence Party to office and was trying to displace the Spanish language in the public school. It is more serious that thirty-nine of the fifty-eight members of the Porto Rican Assembly have instructed FELIX CORDOVA-DAVILA, the Resident Commissioner in this country, to urge the President to recall Governor REILY. 

(“Governor Reily and the Porto Ricans,” New York Times, 24 November, 1921, p. 18.)

Reily and his entourage checked into the Hotel Vanderbilt on November 21 and met with Department of Justice officials who were commencing an investigation. The Times carried the story and offered background into Reily’s unpopularity, including his plan to ban the Puerto Rican flag (which we wrote about here, in a post about activist Julio J. Henna.)

Governor Reily would discuss neither the fire nor political conditions in Porto Rico in advance of his call on President Harding at Washington, at which he expects to talk over the situation, but Robert H. Todd, Commissioner of Immigration for Porto Rico and member of the Republican National Committee from that territory, characterized the fire as an Independista plot. Mr. Todd said these extremists represented only a small fraction of the Porto Rican people, the great majority of whom, he said, were loyal to the United States, and looked forward to Statehood as the ultimate goal.

Opposition to Governor Relly developed even before his arrival in Porto Rico. A delegation of Unionists had previously requested President Harding to appoint a native Porto Rican or to retain Governor Yager. The Republican Party of the island, however, had asked for the appointment of a “strong man."

Reily's Attitude Rouses Opposition. Mr. Reily, who had been President Harding's preconvention Western campaign manager, and a business man of Kansas City, was appointed. He took the position in his inaugural speech that there was no room in Porto Rico for any foreigner unwilling to support and uphold the established Government." and that there was no room in the Island for any except the American flag.

For this he was attacked bitterly, both in Porto Rico and by Porto Ricans in New York City. Alphonso Lastrar Charrlez charged that he lacked intelligence, manners and tact, was dismissing from office every man opposed to his policies and was constantly overstepping the constitutional rights of the Porto Ricans.

(“Governor Reily’s Ship Sinks at Her Pier,” New York Times, 22 November 1921, p. 20.)

– Jonathan Goldman, Nov. 20, 2021

TAGS: Puerto Rico, Latinx history, Hispanic, politics, arson, boats, maritime