Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-06
Highligghts Oh the Wide World
Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands

region, so relief work may be made
more adequate and effective According
to this investigation. there are in
Choix SO families suffering from a
shortage of food: in Tasajara there are
IA families and In. -Sindicatura Bay
mena ia in the same predicament.
The secretary of the relief commission,
Herman Ramos, has arrived at Choix to
Superintend personally the work of as
sistance and to achieve the best results
possible under the circumstances. The
cause OF the restitution was the flood,
"a short time ago. which swept away
nearly everything these people had, in
fcluding their. animals, farming imple-
ments. seeds, crops and practically
everything necessary to maintain exist
ence.
Sought to Smusgle
Way to America,
Neues. Wiener Tagblatt, Vienna
Railway officials at Altoona advise that
chest arrived there, coming from
Herne, in WeStphalia, in which two
young fellows Of about the age of II
were confined. The box was extraordi-
naruy small for such accommodation.
but the boys. hoped to travel by this
means on the railroad to Hamburg,
where it, was their further intention to
smuggle themselves on a steamer to
America. The two would-be emigrants
have been returned to their homes.
tuberculosis Reaps Great
Harvest in Porto Rico.
FL Progreso, San Juan.-Porto Rico
is a tropical island. inhabited by the
descendants OF, that long stream of
Spanish colonists who kept coming for
centuries, and also of other races
brought in by slavery. Civilized life
here. therefore. has developed amid
tropical environments and Latin tradi-
tions, and conditions of life and
achievement are the result of action
and reaction between these mixed races
and their surroundings.
In the matter Of public health. we
have the same problems of any other
country, plus those of a tropical coun-
try, with the exception of a few dis
eases which for more or less known
reasons are either very mild or prac-
tlcally non-existent. So, to such mala-
dies as pneumonia, measles, whooping-
cough, diphtheria and typhoid fever of
| temperate climates we must add the
dangers of malaria, yellow fever and in
testinal parasites. If We ARE to recite
the whole list OF. our discomfitures.
| Nevertheless, cholera. the plague,
ycllOW 1eEeT ana smallpox 40 not exist
in this island. Smallpox was stamped
out many years ago.. though it is still
menace in most civilized countries of
the temperate zone. But we cannot saw
the same about tuberculosis, which is
the second largest cause of death in
the island, while gastroenteritis is the
chief one, affecting mostly children uri-
der years of age.
Our general death. rate for the last
five years has had an average of 23.l
per thousand. This includes the wear
1928. when a terrific hurricane swept
the island; but even if We do not in
clude that year our general death rate
for the same period would be 21.9. This
compares with an annual average of IL
per thousand for continental United
States. The infant mortality rate is
terrific-l55 per Thousand under / year.
In the United States it Is 10 per thou
sand under year. tuberculosis causes
1000 deaths a year>-a ratio nearly four
times that Of the United States. There
are at least 10000 cases Of tuberculosis
at present in Porto Rico, according 10
DR.. A. Fernos Isern, commissioner Of
health.