Evening star., 1931-04-05
The Story the Week Has Told

Corinto. about 1l0 miles by railroad
from Managua is the chief Pacific port
of Nicaragua, and Bluefields, about $50
miles from Managua, is the chief At
lantic port. Two naval transport planes
with physicians and medical supplies
aboard left the Canal Zone on the
morning of April /, and arrived at
Managua that afternoon. The cruiser
Rochester cleared from the Canal Zone
on the night of March 81 with re-
lief stores. The same night the great
aiTDlane carrier Lexington was under
way from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for
Bluefields tmaking 20 knots she would
reach Bluefields in SO hours. and she
would launch relief planes from her
decks several hundred miles offShore.
Indeed. five of her planes arrived at
Managua on the evening of April l,
and five more the next day.. The
Army transports Cambria and Kenowis
at San Francisco received orders con-
templating their dispatch to Nicaragua.
The hospital ship Relief was due at
Corinto yesterday, etc, etc. The wives
and children Of Marine and Navy off,
GERS and men have been evacuated by
plane to Corinto, whence the Army
transport Chaumont (due at Corinto
yesterday will convey them to the
United States. 1t is, I believe, planned
to convey all native sick and wounded
to Granada, where adequate hospital
service is organized.
Managua is magnificently situated on
the shore of Lake Managua From
the opposite shore rises $500 feet the
volcanic cone of Mount Momotombo,
giving out tuft of smoke by day and
glowing red by night, while at the
city'S edge is the dead volcano La
Iona, the crater of which is filled
with water. Before the ConquiStadoreS,
there was native city OF about the
same size as the present city, the i'm
portance of the latter dating from
about 1860, when it was made the
capital A good deal of very fine coffee
is grown in the vicinity, coffee, you
know, constituting nearly half the ex-
port of the republic. The earthquake
raZed some handsome structures, in
Guiding the Presidential Palace, the City
Hall and the Managua Club. The city
was, alas, by way of rapid tranSforma-
tion from the typical old-type ill-kempt,
inSanitary Latin American settlement
into a well plumed, well paved neat
modern city.
There is talk Of abandoning Managua
as the capital and substituting either
Leon or Granada.
1t is said that earthquakes are more
frequent in the Managua district than
anywhere else on the planet, but ap-
parently this Is the first major one OF
record.
Direct American< investment in the
stricken area is said to total about
$13,000,000.
Nicaraguan exports to the United
States in 1929 Ca normal year, totaled
in value about $5,750, 900; imports from
the United States about $7,000,000. AS
Nicaragua shared in the planetary
slump for 1880, the above figures fell
by about so per cent.
Not impoSsibly the disaster will have
an unayertible effect on the Nicaragua
canal project. 1t will be recalled that,
when it was a very near thing" and
between Panama and Nicaragua routes
for an interoceanic canal, the Panama
advocates won by lurid representations
to our Congress of the volcanic activities
of Nicaragua. (Momotombo gave a
special performance right in the nick.)
UNITED STATES.-On March 20
Secretary Lamont issued an estimate of
the total of unemployed persons, Glass
A. in the United States in late January
as 6,050,000 Glass A unemployed are
those "out of a job, able to work and
looking for work" In addition, he eS-
timated 100000 to 100000 Glass B un-
employed-that is, persons having jobs,
but on lay-offs without pay"
1t is, of course, rough estimate. The
Census Bureau took special unemploy-
ment census" in 19 cities in the latter
part of January. The figures were COM
pared with the unemployment figures
of the census of April, 1880. They
showed for the 19 cities an unemploy-
ment increase of 149 per cent since the
April 1880, census.
That percentage of increase being ap-
piled to the unemployment figures of
the April, 1880, census for the entire
country, you have the dismal figures of
the paragraph above.
Says Mr.. Lamont: Since the January
census there has been evidence of a
slight but unmiStakable improving in
the unemployment situation. Informa-
(Continued on Fourth Page)