Evening star., 1934-10-11

paid employment in the cane fields to
all-year-round employment through
the diversihcation Of crops and the
introduction of industry. 1t Is the
purpose to transform them II possible
from hopeless share-croppers. whose
share has been growing steadily less,
into small individual land and home
owners. Subsistence homesteads and
proof hygienic dwellings Of
concrete are an integral part of the
program.
AS in the Virgin Islands, plans are
under way for the development of
the tourist trade. Puerto Rico, with
in its 400 square miles is land of
mountains and sandy beaches, fringed
with coconut palms. 1t is the ideal
tropical vacation land for our Eastern
States. Here is the only spot under
the American flag where Columbus
! landed. Here the Colonial ediflces
built by Ponce de Leon and the fort
reSses established by the early Spanish
conquistadors, tinted with age, still
Stand-monuments replete with his
toric interest and picturesque beauty.
While deeming the rehabilitation Of
the Puerto Ricans in agriculture and
industry as the major assignment.
simultaneous development Of the
tourist industry will not only be help
full to them, but will furnish an ideal
playground for continental American
vacationists. It will likewise promote
better understanding Of the common
problems of continental and Puerto
| Rican Americans. So that, along
with political emancipation which has
progressed steadily in the So years
under the American flag, will now
| come economic rehabilitation. In this
program, the best minds in Puerto
Rico are collaborating with enthu-
| siasm.
Domains of the Pacific.
I have devoted the greater portion
of my limited time to these two
| Caribbean territories, but not from
any desire to slight the immeasurable
beauties and unfathomed potential-
ties of our far vaster territorial
domains in the Pacific. I could devote
| far more time than is allotted to me
| this evening to each, without begin
ming to do them justice, and would
| gladly do SO. But I have emphasized
| Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
because of the very special problems
| that have confronted and confront
the administration there and because
I wanted to show you how 1t has
| attempted in a year and a half to
grapple with these problems that 1t
has inherited.
Because. happily, in neither Alaska
nor in Hawaii Is the administration
confronted with similarly acute prob
lens is no indication that it Is any
less concerned about these Territories.
Alaska, in one sense, presents the
converse of Puerto Rico's major prob
lem-that of overpopulation. Alaska
| is underpopulated, with fewer than
10000 inhabitants to just under
600, 900 square miles, or less than one
inhabitant to every ten square miles.
| The possibility of colonizing certain
parts of Alaska with a limited num-
Der Of American homesteaders imbued
with the old pioneer spirit is engaging
this administrations earnest study. 1t
Is too early to discuss such program
as yet. Alaska, too, is q realm which
for grandeur Of scenery equals any,
| thing to be found elsewhere on earth.
Here are single glaciers larger than
some of our Eastern States. Here are
fjords far more imposing than those
Of Norway. Here are the loftiest
mountains in North America, culmin-
ating in stupendous Mount Mckinley.
which towers 10000 feet above sea
level. Rising 1900 feet above the
plateau upon which it stands. it is,
measured in height above its base,
the highest mountain in the world.
Here are vast unexplored prin1eval
forests, still the haunts of great bear,