Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-22
SAN JUAN OLDEST
CITY RULED BY U. S.
Hoover to Visit Town Settled
so Years Before First on
Continent.

When President Hoover visits the
City of San Juan he will be paying his
respects to the Oldest city In the New
World under the American flag. Also
the Chief Executive will be seeking
rest in the place that Ponce de Leon,
Spanish explorer, left TO seek the
Fountain of Youth"
"San Juan, the capital of Porto Rico,
was settlement half a century before
ST. Augustine, Fla the oldest town in
the 48 States, came into being and a
full century before the Pilgrims landed
at Plymouth Rock" says a bulletin
from the National Geographic Society,
Despite San Juan's age, 1t is q
thoroughly modern metropolis of some
1l4,000 people. Skyscrapers peer over
the old Spanish fort that pretends to
guard the entrance to its magnificent
harbor. Busting traffic fills its mar
row downtown streets, and a network
Of modern bus lines carry hundreds Of
daily.
Many Traces of Spain.
MANY monuments survive from the
old regime of the Spaniards, who held
the island continuously from 1909, q
few years after Columbus discovered 1t,
until 1898. MoSs-grown forts, with
thick walls and stony sentry boxes,
flank the modern city Of San Juan
Convent and cathedral, presidio pow-
der house and hand-paved military
roads that wind over the entire island
of Porto Rico-all Of these are ancient
Spanish works.
Contrasting sharply with then are
b-and-l0 cent stores, hugh flying boats
of the mail and passenger lines, and
pretty Porto Rican girls in one-piece
bathing suits gambling on the beaches.
American rule has checked disease
and brought measure Of prosperity to
Porto RlcanS. Since the United States
took over the island the population has
grown from about 100000 to 1874, 900.
And all Of these people are crowded
into an area third less than that of
CONNECTICUT. Passengers on modern air
liners can see how crowded the island
really is, with tiny huts standing in
every nook and Creamery and clinging
even to the hilltops to save level space
for crops. Children fairly swarm. The
death rate is about %, and the birth
rate SO, per 1000.
Merging Of Small Farms.
porto Rico, like other parts of the
world, has undergone great economic
changes in the last two decades. From
1910 to 1920 the census shows 1900
small farms were merged into big plan
tationS. This is simply the result of
the modern tendency of agriculture
everywhere TO enlarge the unit of its
operations. AS land rose in price, small
holders sold out and took Jobs on the
bigger plantations.
Fresh meat Is scarce in Porto Rico.
Much land that was once devoted to
stock raising has been turned over, in
recent years, to the cultivation of pine
apples, citrus fruits. sugar and tobacco.
Even the food of the common people
rice, beans and dried codash-nuSt be
imported
the island is prosperous. But the plain
truth is, its 1,544,000 people, who most
~ work for wages, cannot subsist now
on the kinds Of things the land pro-
duceS, and to live on imported foods is
costly.
Migration has been tried, but so far
with little success. Too often It is the
educated youths who leave-an element
the island needs. SO Porto Rico Is a
problem. Under its ancient social order,
deaths from disease kept the balance
between population and food supply,
but now all that is upset.
Keeps An Its Tax Money.
porto Rico occupies favored posi-
ton among American dependencies. Al
though it is protected from foreign in
vaston by the United States, IL pays not
3 cent to this country for this or any
OF the various services rendered It, It
may make its own tax laws. and retain
all local revenues, including customs,
income tax, and internal revenue, which,
In territories, go to the Federal Gov
eminent. In addition, Porto Rico re-
Gently received 81 900, 900 for roads.
made available by special Congress
sional relief fund. Most important of
all, Porto Rico products may be ex-
ported TO the United States without
paying the tariffs
Like New York City, Porto Rico's
capital San Juan, is built on an island,
an island that Is separated from the
mainland at the eastern end by only a
narrow channel Of water The island
curves protectingly around its harbor
like Pressure Isle at Erie, leaving a
wide entrance at the western end. San
Juan has been called OT1ental-SpaniSh
in aspect. The old Spanish part Of the
city has fiat, chimneyless roofs, putting
balconies, grilled windows without
glass, central patio gardens and pas
tel-shaded plaster walls. The larger
modern section Of the city, and the
suburbs on the mainland, boast Of wide
asphalt boulevards, magnificent marble
government buildings. modern high
schools, theaters and churches"