Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-27

selected to bring order out of this
chaos had won recognitlon Tor
achievements before going To Haiti
The most important, from the stand
point of the Government, is w. w.
Cumberland, Finance Director. All
development depends on money. Mr..
Cumberland's first reform was to
demonstrate that an official day in
the Haitian government service did
not end at noon, but included the
afternoon as well.
Protection Was Needed.
I'm order to have revenue to work
with there had to be peace and pro-
lection for workers. 1t had to be
made possible for men to come out
of hiding and, as was said while J
was there, to sleep under their own
mango tree The Haitian constabu-
larry, in their neat uniforms and with
their fine military bearing, are gooo
to look at. The record they nave
established in the districts they con-
troll for maintaining justice ana
order shows that competent Haitian
administrators are being trained.
They could have become what they
are only through contact with
American officers having high ira
sorbing their ideals. They are being
made into good soldiers and good
civil rulers. The head of this con-
stabuIary is Col. julius S. Turrill,
u. S. NJ. G..
with peace and order came more
farms and larger crops and more
people going to and from the mar
ket towns. Not only was there need
for roads to take the place OF trails.
but bridges over mountain torrents
had to be rebuilt. The head OF the
Bureau of Engineering is Comdr. r.
III, Cooke of the II. S. Navy. he Is
a graduate of the Boston Institute
of Technology. He stood high as an
engineer and administrator before
he was sent to Haiti. Here what he
has accomplished is matched by the
economy with which results are Sc
cured. Nearly all his clerical stan
and many of his engineering subor-
dinates are Haitians. Like Col. Tur-
rill, he is training natives to know
what efficient government means,
and take up these tasks when we
drop them.
Roads Were Neglected.
when Haiti was a French posses
sion the Government engineers laid
ont and built some fine main roads,
but during the hundred years or
native rule these were neglected.
MANY became impossible or We're
replaced by trails. On these, end
less professions of women. on foot
or on the backs of donkeys. Wended
their way to the city markets. Most
of the food of Portau-Prince. a city
If more than 100000 people, was
brought to the market in this way.
Now the Department of Public
Works is rebuilding the old French
roads and adding new ones. Not
only is the foot travel increasing,
but a motor car can now go from
one side Of the island to the other
In a day, and here and there the
Haitian farmer Is rising to the un-
beiievable opulence of being able to
own a car.
"Along these roads new concrete
buildings, small but neat, are going
UP. They are the public schools and
rural dispensaries. There are now il
country schoolhouses. with 500 pupils.
Cen Russell hopes to build 800 school
houses and teach 10000 children. The
present ignorance is an appalling bar
rier to progress ! was at a gather
ing in a country town. We asked
every man we met who was President
Of Haiti Not one knew. Seemingly
no one cared. They must be taught
to care, or they will revert to bar
barism when the Americans with
draw"
Education Being Spread.
American treaty officials are cog
infant of this fact, Mr.. Mead says, and
rather than wait for schools to ac-
complish this education alone. are in
stituting such modern agencies as mo-
ton pictures and the radio.
Although roads and schools are inn
portant. the thing that interested Com
missioner Mead more than these was
the work being done In the way OF
sanitation and health promotion.
Nothing could have been worse than
the sanitary conditions at the begin
ming of American occupation, he says.
Now, under the direction of Comdr.
G. s. Butler, sanitary engineer, U. 3.
N, the promotion of health and the
general increase In human efficiency
are going forward rapidly. The little
yellow oispenSary on the island is az
| fording 1900. 900 persons their first
experience with medicine and surgery.
Diseases are being dissipated and the
| morale of the people is on the ascend
| ant,
A bureau of technique has been es-
| tablished to encourage agriculture,
which includes the raising OF cotton,
coffee and corn. Land title disputes
are being cleared up by surveys and
researches. An enlightened land pol
icy. designed to keep the natives
down on the farm" is being agitated.
Expenses Paid by Income.
This marvellous progress, the result
of the sympathetic insight and efficient
direction of a group of intelligent and
| highly trained Americans, is not be-
| ing paid for out Of borrowed money"
the commissioner stresses. "Expenaes