ABSTRACT
On March 2, 1917, President Wilson signed into law the Jones Act, which was "An act to provide a Civil Government for Porto Rico and for other purposes". The Jones Act conferred collective US citizenship on Puerto Ricans and legally terminated Puerto Rican citizenship. The grant of US citizenship was proposed as a gambit to abate Puerto Rican dissatisfaction with the colonial regime, quiet political agitation for independence, and serve to permanently bind the country to the United States. Congress finally acted when US entry into the European war was imminent. The grant of citizenship was proposed as measure to dampen support for independence and to demonstrate US resolve to retain Puerto Rico as a colony. Governor Yager purportedly called for the restrictive provisions because he was certain that corporations controlled the votes of large numbers of their male employees. In 1920 the United States enacted the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the vote.
