But, in any case, the starting-point should be the needs of Porto Rico herself, intelligently studied and conscientiously met--not the blacksmith's offhand attempt to fit on her head, like a rusty iron pot, an old system made for other needs, other industries, a distant land, and another people.
Reid emphasizes that any policy for Porto Rico should be based on its specific needs rather than outdated systems.
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The people have generally more education and refinement than in other parts of the State; their public improvements are better, and their country is every way more attractive.
That would be “jumping from the frying-pan into the fire,” indeed.
As a foreign critic said in comment on one of the addresses: "The author is one man who knows what he thinks about the new policy required by the new situation in which his country is placed, and has the courage and candor to say it.
Is that the feast to be set before the laboring men of this country?