The age-herald., 1900-01-19
CARROLL'S REPORT
 ON PUERTO RICO
The People Are Kind and Very
 HospitabIe.
MAKES RECON MMENDATlONS
The Report Shows That the Fields Are Rich, and That Though the Cli- mate is Tropical it is
 Not Torrid

Washington, January 1S-Henry K. Car roll, special commissioner for the United States to Puerto Rico. under appointment by the president, to investigate the civil, industrial financial and social conditions of the island, has made his report.
 The report states that Puerto Rico has an area estimated from 3,15O to 3,S6O square miles. The climate is tropical, but not torrid. The thermometer rarely rises to 100 degrees, the highest monthly average on record in mine years in San Juan being S6 degrees.
 The mountains are generally covered with verdure, and even the peaks are gardens of the husbandmen.
 The death rate is moderate. Smallpox sometimes becomes epidemic. The health bill of Puerto Rico. however, will compare favorably with that of countries in the temperate zone. The population fin 1897 numbered S90, S20, exclusive of the Spanish militia then occupying the island and the penal population. comparison of the census of 1887 and 1897 shows that the col ored race is decreasing. the whites now numbering GA per cent of the whole. The Catholic wse the state religion, and at the time of the American occupation there were only two churches of any other faith in the island. There was one Protes- tant Episcopal church in Ponce and another at Isabel IT.. in the Island of Vieques The public charities are few and poorly supported. The statistics of births in 1887 shows that about AS per cent. are illegi- innate.
 At most of the hearings held by the l tad that Inc fees exacted by the priests were too heavy for poor people, who preferred living to- l gether unwedded than to meet all the con- ditions of ecclesiastical marriages. l These persons, it was said, are rarely un- l true to each other.
 l Kindly and Hospitabie | The Puerto Ricans, the report says are a kindly, hospitabe, polite people, very so- l ciable and always ready to do Americans a l friendly service. One of the greatest needs 1 of the island, it is said, is good roads.
 The common estimate of Puerto Ricans | is that only one-tenth of the cultivatable | lands are in actual cultivation at any one | time. The soils of the plains and valleys are generally very rich, and have borne | crops for generations without the use of fertilizers. The crops most generally rais- ed are, in the order of areas occupied in l 1896:
 Coffee, 121, TIC acres; cane, 60,SS4 acres; to- | bacco, 4,222 acres. Coffee cannot be raised 1 without shade. as in Brazil. The coffee bushes need five years for full development, | under the shade of banana or other trees, | and continue bearing twenty-five and even fifty years. Bananas give both shade and l fruit the first year. Coffee farms Gre ex- | empt from taxes for the first five years. | The grades of coffee are among the finest.
 The fruits of the island are such as are
 common to the tropical countries.
 The daily wages of the common field la-
 borer range from 35 to 50 cents, native
 money. Women are rarely seen in the | fields.
 Commissioner Carroll recommends that
 the constitution and laws of the United I States be extended to Puerto Rico and that | territorial form of government similar to that established in Oklahoma be provided; i; that the legislative power shall extend to | all rightful subjects of legislation; that
 the legal voters of the island be permitted commission consisting of three persons | who shall be natives of the island and two of the United States be appointed by the president to revise the codes; that the banking system and patent laws of the
 United States be extended to the island;
 that a court of claims be established to
 adjudIcate all claims to property, secular