and weaken the "Alliance". Georgetti denied it and quit the alliance. Barceló was also a victim of an assassination attempt, but this did not keep him from believing and pursuing his liberal ideas. Liberal Party of Puerto Rico Differences became apparent between Barceló and Tous Soto and Félix Córdova Dávila, the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington, as to the goals of the alliance. Barceló requested that Herbert Hoover, the newly elected President of the United States, retain Horace Towner temporarily as governor of the island. Hoover, however, consulted Córdova Dávila, instead of Barceló, in regard to his intentions of naming Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. to the position. Córdova Dávila in turn notified Tous Soto, instead of Barceló, as to Hoover's decision. Barceló felt offended that he was not consulted and convinced his followers, in the Unionist sector of the alliance, to disaffiliate themselves from the "Alliance." Because of legal reasons Barceló was unable to use the name "Union Party." In 1932, he founded the "Puerto Rican Liberal Party." The Liberal Party's political agenda was the same as that of the original Union Party, urging independence as a final political solution for Puerto Rico. Among those who joined him in the "new" party were Felisa Rincón de Gautier and Ernesto Ramos Antonini. By 1932, Barceló had invited Luis Muñoz Marín, son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, to join the Liberal Party. During the elections of 1932, the Liberal Party faced the Alliance, by then a coalition of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico and Santiago Iglesias Pantin's Socialist Party. Barceló and Muñoz Marín were both elected senators of Puerto Rico. Even though the Liberal Party received more votes than the Republican Party and the Socialist Party did individually, it received fewer votes than their candidates as a coalition. Eventually, Muñoz Marín, who had different points of view as to how Puerto Rico should go about obtaining its independence, would collide with Barceló. Barceló believed that independence should be a gradual process, preceded by autonomous insular government. Following the Río Piedras massacre in 1935, US Senator Millard Tydings in 1936 introduced a bill in Congress for Puerto Rican independence. The Puerto Rican parties supported the bill, but Muñoz Marín opposed it, saying it had unfavorable economic aspects. Tydings did not gain passage of the bill. In 1936, a Liberal Party assembly was held in San Juan. Muñoz Marín said he was not