“I felt that the price we paid was outrageous; but we had done our best. That it was a good investment, however, we had the assurance of the New York bankers who loaned us the funds for the purchase as well as for extensions and improvements. The negotiations leading up to this had been long and devious. In fact, when we finally came to the point of paying too much and borrowing under conditions and at rates calculated to please Wall Street, we were suddenly regarded benignly by all the powers that be. I had thought that we ought to be castigated for the deal. But that did not happen. There was not a word of criticism and a good deal of congratulation. The people of Puerto Rico would pay for it over a period of some twenty years in inflated rates; but absolutely no one showed any concern over that.”
So said Rexford G. Tugwell, the renowned economist and planner whom Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed governor of Puerto Rico, describing his efforts to modernize Puerto Rico’s electricity infrastructure. Governor Tugwell consolidated Puerto Rico’s disparate private electricity companies into one government-owned monopoly.
