Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1904-07-20
ABOUT PORTO RICO.
WHAT EVERETT w. LORD, AN
ELLSWORTH BOY, HAS TO SAY.
MR.. LORD Is ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER
OF EDUcATToN-IN THE STATES
WITH PORTO RIcAN TEACHERS.

IL Ia this country Ia charge OF the Porto
Rican school teachers who are studying
American ways at Harvard and Cornell.
| MIR. Lord is Ellsworth bern and bred
He is graduate of the Ellsworth high
school, and OF Boston university. He has
been superintendent of schools In Els
worth and In Bellows Falls, VI, whence
he went to Porto Rico to assume the
| duties of his present position.
/ He has been in Ellsworth week, ac-
eompauied by bis wife and son. They
left yesterday for Boston. They came to
the states with the teachers, and will &C.
com pany them on their return to Porto
Rico at the close OF the term Of the sum
mer school.
MIR. Lord has this to say regarding
| Porto Rico:
| NOT WELL KNOWN.
| "Iam surprised to find how little people
know about Porto Rico. There seems to
be general impression that Porto Rico
is one OF the new possessions OF the
| United States, located perhaps near the
Philippines or possibly quite close
to Cuba, but very few people seem to
know d, finitely where and what the is
land is.
Ave frequently receive letters addressed
San Juan. Porto Rico, Philippine Islands,
or Sa Juan, Porto Rico, Cuba, and / re-
| ceived one less than week before / left
addressed San Juan, Porto Rico, Cuba,
South America. Fortunately, the postal
officials have information which Is sufii-
GENTLY accurate to enable them to for
ward such communications without great
delay.
porto Rico Is an island about 100 miles
long and forty miles wide, very nearly he
size and shape OF the state OF Connecticut,
about ], 400 miles southeast OF New York,
aud nearly 1000 miles east OF Havana. IL
has over million inha bitants, and they
are highly civilized people. Less than
one-foorth of the population consists of
colored people. The language spoken is
Spanish. and smong the educated people
1t is very we'll spoken.
"5sn Juan, the capital and largest city,
has nearly SO, 900 In bs bitsnts, and contains
public buildings two or three hundred
years old, built after the Spanish style,
and many OF them very beautiful.
1.-THE climate OF Porto Rico Is delightful.
The temperature ranges from u to So de-
grees above zero, and the northwestern
trade wind blowing constantly tempers
the steady heat to a degree that makes
much for comfort.
THE ISLAND GOVERNMENT.
1.-THE government Is, OF course, In the
HANDS of Americans, although the people
elect an insular house OF delegates which
has equal legislative authority with the
senate, majority OF whose memb ers are
Americans appointed by the President.
Ii Is one OF the things In which we may
feel some pride that in the five years of
the American administration not one doll
lar OF public money has been misappro-
priated by an American official.
"ot my own department the head Is
the commissioner, at the present time
| Hon. 3. NJ. Lindsay, of Pennsylvania.
He, In common with the heads OF the
other departments, is a member OF the
insulsr senate, and necessarily devotes q
largo part OF his time to general legisIa-
tive and executive work. Each govern
mental department has an assistant who
devotes his time to the special work OF
that department; thus my work Is par
ticulariy the direction OF the educational
interests of the island.
"Ail OF the public school work centres
in the department OF education. We ex-
anime all teachers, issue certificates, APP
point the teachers, fix their salaries, de-
termine the length OF school terms and
vacations, purchase all supplies and make
all payments directly from our office.
| We employ twenty district ssperin-
tendeuts OF schools and about 1900
teachers, so that you can readily see that
the detail work devolving upon us is
| considerable.
''The matter of payment of teachers
salaries at the end OF every month means
something more than twelve hours work
for me In merely signing checks aud
vouchers. About $50 OF the teachers are
Americans whose work is mostly teaching
elementary English. am always glad to
receive applications from well-quslified
American teachers, aud / hope that we
may be able to employ this year a con-
sidera BILE number OF young men from
Maine in this work.
1 HANCOCK COUNTY REPRESENTED.
ellsworth people will be interested to
know that a former Ellsworth teacher,
Miss Charlotte Dorman, is engaged in
Porto Rico. being employed as insular
supervisor Of drawing.
"The secretary OF the University OF,
Porto Rico, newly organized institution
Is Hancock county man-Daniel N.
Handy, formerly OF Southwest Hsrbor.
As you know at he present time about
$50 of our native teachers are taking sum-
mer courses at Harvard and Cornell uni-
| versities. We have been at work on the