On February 7, 1910, U.S. Congressman Marlin E. Olmsted, who at the time served as Chairman of the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs, presented a project before Congress in which U.S. citizenship would be optional for Puerto Ricans.
In 1917, after the death of Luis Muñoz Rivera, Antonio R. Barceló became the leading force behind the liberal ideas of the island.