The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-07-22
CITES EFFECT
OF CANAL IN THE
CARIBBEAN ZONE
People of Middle America viii
Profit by U. S. Intervention

Washington, ID. c., July 22.-The
probable beneflcent effect of the Pan
anna Canal on the countries of the Ca
rbbean is told by VIM. j. Showalter
i'm communication To the National
Geographic Society, at Washington, ID.
G. He describes the wonderful chang
es that have been wrought I'm Porto
Rico ana Cuba since the advent of the
United States government in those is
lands.
1T would require six Salvadors to
make one Honduras. and yet Salvador
has three times as much population
and three times as much foreign COM
merce as Honduras" he says. Costa
Rica is less than half as big as Nicara-
qua, and yet it has three times as
much foreign commerce as Nicaragua.
And yet, when Salvador and Costa
Rica are compared with Porto Rico,
they i'm turn seem To be slow i'm their
development. Porto Rica is so small
that seven islands like it would he
required to cover an AREA equal to that
of Costa Rica, yet il has a foreign
trade five times as great as that of the
Banana Empire. Porto Rico is less
than half as large as Salvador, yet it
has a foreign trade seven times as
great.
Porto Rico's Trade Increasing.
Little Porto Rico Is so small that
il could be buried in a single Central
American lake; it would take 81 is
lands Of it's size to equal Central AM
erica in area, and yet Porto Rico pro-
duces more foreign trade than all Cen
trail America together. The reason?
Because Porto Rico has an ideal gov
eminent. The trade of the island has
nearly quintupled since Uncle Sam
took possession there The number Of
children enrolled in the school has in
creased skiold. The wages of the la
boring class has multiplied threefod.
Porto Rico's prosperity is seen in the
SUGAR fields, where four tons of sugar
are produced where one was "A dozen
years ago, and where the Porto Rican
people receive Sc for exported sugar
where they received 81 only a dozen
gNsilo DtlpIts Nblltt llbl IltiS
quadrupled since the beginning of the
century. The production of oranges
has increased sevenfold in ten years
pineapplcs twenty-fold in four years
and grapefruit twenty five fold in
three years"
Prospers Through Government.
Similar comparisons are made be-
tween Cuba and the six republics. With
an area one-fifth as great, its foreign
| commerce is three times that of the
six. "One might go on with these
comparisons indefinitely, the lesson of
them all being that prosperity cannot
exist where good government does
not" continues the writer.
with vast deposits of minerals, un-
told thousands of acres of the finest
tropical fruit and vegetable lands in
the world and vast areas of magnitl
cent grazing and coffee lands, Hondur-
as is ut our very doors. 1t is 700 miles
nearer to Chicago than that city is
from San Francisco; 1t is closer t.
Washington than Denver is: it is far
| ther from New Orleans to Chicago
than it is from Puerto Barrios to New
York. stable government for Hon
duras, and IL must become kingdom
Of plenty instead of "A principally of
poverty! Nicaragua is i'm the same
condition as Honduras.
Profit by Cuba's Experience.
1T is not unreasonable To assume
that If the people of Middle America
can secure fair and proper government
conditions after the completion of the
Panama Canal, they can do what Cuba
has done in the 10 years since the first
time the number of people able to read
and write has increased 140 per cent
The mortality rate has been cut down
from 33.6S per thousand to 1863. The
balance of trade has risen from n de-
felt of $27,000,000 year to a surplus
America can be brought up to Cubas
standard today, it's foreign trade
would amount to n full billion dollars
a year instead of n beggarly G5 million
| today. II would have 10000 miles of
railroad where IL has less than 1000
| miles today. Ii would have 5000
miles of macadam roads as compared
with n few hundred. 1t would have q
population of 100000, as compared
with 100000 today
This and more will certainly come
to Central America If good government
| there comes apace with a completed
Panama Canal"