The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-03-10
SEEN AND HEARD
BY GEORGE MINER
Special Correspondent of The wash
fnpten Herald.
tcosynSht. 1910 By the Meohur N-~r.-
syndic1te1


New York. March 8
direct steamer line has now been
established between New Orleans and
Progreso, which is the main ana prac-
ticslly only port Of Yucatan. The trans
portsuon Of the henequen fiber from,
| fucatan to the United States IA the -
son for this line and sonstitues the rnstor
part Of it's freight.
Until the Mexican government last year
established commission 20 handle the
henequen crop and regulate the market
ing OF Il the whole crop was monopoliz-
ed by two big corporations, the Interna-
uonal Harvester Company. an American
| trust, and the Plymouth Cordage Com
| pany. an English concern. They brought
the henequen out on steamship lines al
price that suited them. II aid not
however. suit the Commission Reguls-
aara del Mercado de Henequen. as the
| Mexican commission Is called They
thought it could be done cheaper and
quicker
So they induced the Southern and
Caribbean Steamship Company 70 run a
| ship constantly between New Orleans
| and Progreso, the two nearest ports IN
the United States and Yucatan. rs
directly across the Gulf Of Mexico and
really not so far as II sounds, IN actual
iniles' much less than a thousand Yucca
tan is 80 little known, has such different
| customs and sounds SO far OF that most
| people regard Il as at the ends Of the
| earth. In fact, II Is a close neiehbor OF
the United States and Is dependent on
us for everything that's imported. They
nave no trade with other countries worth
mentioning
In return, their only export is heneouen
fiber. or hemp. as Il Is generally known
From this hemp, binding Irvine ana rome
are made, and II is an absolute necessity
10 the United States. Without Il We
| could not harvest our wheat crop. for tbs
binding Irvine is Just as necessary 70 the
western farmer as Is the reapinE ma
| chine. No SUbstitute for heneouen has
yet been found, and nowhere else in the
world will il thrive. So II happens that
without ittle-known YUcatan's one i'm
| portant product and only export our great
| crops would rot on the fields and ruin and
starvation would rear their ugly heads
All things considered, It strikes me that
under these circumstances we had bet
1 ter be pretty nice 20 Yucatan. especially
as she does not ask many favors Of Us
She could easily do without our goods
while We could not possibly do without
hers.
This heneQuen steamer sails under the
Norwegian flag and plies back and forth
between Progreso and New Orleans. max
ing a round trip in about ten days She
takes down a mixed cargo mainly con-
featured products, but brings back moth
ing but hemp The trip across the Gulf
Of Mexico takes two days and a half
In fair weather. for the Viking. as she
Is called, Is not a greyhound and only
essays ten miles an hour. At present she
is not supposed 70 be a passenger boat
and only carries few as an accomno-
dalton. Naturally the quarters are not
luxurious and the service and cuisine
leave much TO be desired but as Il r.
the only direct way 70 Yucatan, in sd-
dition to being the quickest Il il hoped
that travel and trade will increase suf-
hciently to warrant putting regular pas
senger boats on the service. The only
other way 10 get there from the States
lis by the Ward line from New York
via Havana. This takes six days, while
| II is possible TO get from New York 10
Progreso, by rail to New Orleans, in
four days.
All boats leaving Progress for New
lOrleans carry mail, and as there Is A
postal service from YUcatan Is by no
means bad. in fact, It is more frequent
than the mail service from the United
States to Yucatan
| We took abroad one cargo OF bags Of
corn and -four and cans Of OIL at the
! Stuyvesant docks on the upper river
front These docks were built BY Stuy-
the Fish docks he found himself in
snarl for there are already a Fish dock
where they unloaded the fishing boats
and the similarity OF names caused no
end Of trouble and confusion. So he had
to change the name 20 Stuyvessnt They
still laugh about It in New Orleans
They have that French temperament and
are easily amused.
Speaking OF docks they are Just I'm
ishing the most complete and largest cot
ton docks that have ever seen. They
are way ahead OF the Liverpool docks
and are marvels Of ingenuity ana
efficiency. They are large AFFAIRS Of con
| crete, at which twelve ships can load
| at once And a ship can be loaded with
cotton In two days now. when il used
TO take two weeks TO get cargo, going
| from one dock to another wherever the
cotton was to be found. With this new
terminal that annoyance is done away
with, for all the cotton is brought 10
the docks. weighed. pressed. ticketed and
| shipped as wanted. They can handle
more than half a million bales OF cot
ton at once and can take a whole car
load OF cotton directly from a train In
a ships hold II necessary.
| As cotton is such a light cargo. n 4,
| condensed as much as possible so the
bales are all put in enormously powerful
presses and reduced TO one-quarter their
normal size. 1t squeezes the cotton so
hard that It becomes solid as stone You
| can't drive a nail in t.
| The negro laborers who work on these
| presses are very proud Of the distinction
and consider themselves far above their
fellows. One Of them that noticed tried
to dress up to the part by wearing a silk
hat while he helped roll in the bales. To
make II still more impressive. he had put
a bright green band on IL He was the
proudest darby on the levee
As l said, the Accommodations on the
| Viking are not exactly luxurious The
sheets on my bunk were rather dubious
and far from inviting. I asked the Nor
wegian steward for some clean ones
| oh" said he, but those are clean
They were put on fresh at Progreso only
last week. Do you mean you want brand
new ones from the laundry
I got one brand new one
| OF course, he was only steward N q
freighter, where sheets are clean Sheet
no matter how many people have slept