The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1926-05-24
CUBA AND FLORIDA
CONTINUED from Page u

the great artery that VIII Scnd new
streams of life pulsing through
Florida all year long is Captain
Clark ID. Stearns, u. S. NJ, who
recently retired as commandant of
the Key West navy yard to plunge,
UP to the neck, into Key Vests
development matters. Even Mrs.
Stearns is in the game, with cor
poratiOn that is building happy
homes for people who want to be
happy. The Stearns have lived in
the Orient, the South Seas, where
Captain Stearns was governor of
Samoa, and they have an educated
view of just what the future
greatness Of South Florida is to be
in competition with all the other
joyous beauty spots of the world.
We were their guests aboard
Colonel Robert Thompson's famous
big houseboat Everglades"
which, by the way, is the very
craft on which the Countess Of
Lauderdale was sailing twenty-one
years ago, as she told our citizens
on a recent memorable occasion,
when she discovered the town that
bears her family name.
CUBA, too, as some folks may
be surprised to learn, is also max
ing splendid preparations for the
coming auto highway from tip to
tip of Florida. They talk about
Il in the pleasant American club
in Havana, where transplanted
Americans sit around the pleasant
lounge and discuss the big days
ahead when touring parties will
speed down the auto road that
goes TO sea and at Key West roll
their cars onto a 5-hour ferry that
will disembark them on the mag
nificent Malecon, the boulevard
that circles the clean, beautiful,
romantic old city that smiles
welcome from her innumerable
hills. This highway as a new link
between Cuba and the United
States is frequently discussed by
President William p. Field, presi-
dent of the American Chamber of
Commerce Of Havana, who made
hit with his speech before the
United States Chamber of Com
merce conference at Washington
the other day, and by J. Bernard
Frisbie, the Havana chambers ac-
tive and efficient secretary.
General Machado, president Of
Cuba, was one of the first meh to
see the significance of the high
way that would fetch automobiles
from every part Of the United
States to Key West. He came
over to Key West and talked it
out with Captain Stearns and the
others. Then be went back to Ha-
yana and talked it over with
Senior Cespedcs, his secretary of
state, and the next day they had
the Cuban congress pass an en-
abling act that provides for the
building, in due course and at a
total cost of about 100000, 900,
Of the second link of that high
way--an auto boulevard that is to
reach from one end of Cuba to
the other. President Machado,
experienced business man as well
as seasoned soldier, didn't have
to have the possibilities beaten
into him with u slcdge hammer.
He saw and had his country act
forthwith. Not that it matters
anything to the general, but / do
like that statesman, Machado.
Mrs. Steele and / played along
many miles Of Cuba's section of
that great highway Of tomorrow.
The seventy-five miles road from
Havana TO Mautanzas. with its
hills and dales, its stately country
estates, its palm-thatched farm
houses, its mighty eleva trees and
It's picturesque. kindly people is
one of the most beautiful and de-
lightful we have ever found any
where. The tall, mammoth-boled
clcve trees, Tint look like a cross
between banyan and an oak, line
mn b Of the road and are three
hundred years Old And the road
bed Is, for the most part, already
in splendid condition.
"'The road matters she are
changed, a highway official said
20 me naively. 1t used to be
the commissioners chief duty "a
see that the foliage overhead was
80 thick she could give perfect
shade to the traveller rs hes rode
along. The horse could pick his
way over the stones. But today
Is the auto. aud she is different.
Now the road commissioner must
think not only of the ceiling, but
nauch--or. SO very mueh-~of the
floor as well. At first it all look
ed impossible bat we visit the
United States and look at your un-
bclievabie roads. and then our big