Charles H. Allen

Charles Herbert Allen (April 15, 1848 – April 20, 1934) was an American politician and businessman. After serving in state and federal elected positions, he was appointed as the first United States-appointed civilian governor of Puerto Rico when the U.S. acquired it after the Spanish–American War. He previously had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley.

After returning to the U.S. from Puerto Rico, Allen headed for Wall Street and became a vice president of Morton Trust Company and its successor, the Guaranty Trust Company of New York. He formed the American Sugar Refining Company—a sugar syndicate which, by 1907, was the largest in the world. It owned or controlled 98% of the sugar processing capacity in the U.S. and was known as the Sugar Trust. Allen was treasurer of American Sugar Refining in 1910, its president in 1913, and in 1915 he joined its board of directors. In the early 21st century, the company is known as Domino Sugar.

Allen was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1848, to Otis and Louisa (Bixby) Allen. He attended public and private schools. He did his undergraduate work at Amherst College, where he graduated in 1869. He worked with his father in their company, Otis Allen and Son, a lumber business that manufactured wooden boxes and sold railroad ties, housing frames, and road building materials.

Allen joined the Republican Party and was elected to two terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1881 and 1882; and one term in the Massachusetts Senate in 1883. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses, serving March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1889. In 1890, Allen was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Republicans, but was defeated by William E. Russell.

In 1884, he received the title "Colonel," when Governor George Dexter Robinson appointed him to his personal staff. He also was appointed as the Massachusetts Prison Commissioner from 1897 to 1898.

In 1898 President William McKinley named Allen as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when Theodore Roosevelt resigned the post to enter the Spanish–American War. He held this position from 1898 to 1900.

When the war ended, President McKinley appointed Allen as the first civilian governor of Puerto Rico, and he served from 1900 to 1901. Though Allen had a business background, his financial administration of Puerto Rico has been criticized by historians Thomas Aitken Jr. and Manuel Maldonado-Denis. The revenue for the island's government was raised internally, mostly from tariffs, sales taxes and property taxes. During Allen's tenure this annual budget equaled the 4.4 million pesos the Spanish had spent in 1897, but without expenses for a five-thousand man garrison or the former contributions to the Catholic church.

Due to this reduced overhead, the island should have had a substantial budget surplus, but Allen's administration did not provide many benefits for the people. He ignored the appropriation requests of the Puerto Rican House of Delegates, and refused to make any municipal, agricultural or small business loans. He built roads at double the old costs. 85% of the school-age population did not have schools. Instead of making needed infrastructure and education investments, Allen re-directed the insular budget to no-bid contracts for U.S. businessmen, railroad subsidies for U.S.-owned sugar plantations, and high salaries for U.S. bureaucrats in the island government.