Evening star., 1935-04-21
Continued From First Page.)

fought through extensive programs
to improve water supply and sewage
disposal. Some $4,000 latrines have
been built or are in process Of con-
struction. In Guayama. which has
been agitating for the improvement
for IS years, a complete sewage sys-
tenn has been installed by p. r. e. r. A.
costing more more than 100000.
Hookworm Is also being fought by the
hospitals and clinics and by the
giving Of shoes to as many persons
needing them as possible. Pellagra
and dysentery and other dietary dis
eases are combatted by the attempt
to give the people better diet.
With q climate and soil that could
easily grow four crops a year OF every
thing needful. the people Of Puerto
Rico actually have not been producing
a sufficient variety Of foodstuffs to
keep them in good health. Much Of
the food that might be raised is now
imported and most of the people cam
not afford to buy 1t. For instance.
100000 worth of corn Is brought into
the country every year. This situation
has resulted in part from the monopoly
of agricultural production by a few
crops. Sugar. citrus fruits. tobacco
and coffee have been kings Of Puerto
Rican economics until recently.
The Relief Administration has been
trying to remedy this situation by an
extensive agricultural program which
is already having its effect. Four
thousand subsistence gardens have
been established in urban and sub
urban districts, and 500 community
gardens, about 5000 acres. have been
planted In rural communities. The
products of these latter and of some
600 acres directly under the super
vision of p. r. e. r. A. have been
distributed from commissaries to re-
lief clients everywhere.
Fair Shows Produce.
Last month, at San Sebastian, P.
r. E. r. A. had an agricultural fair
and exhibit, at which were shown
vegetables grown in these gardens
vegetables which 1t had been thought
could not be grown in the island at
all. In some cases, with the aid Of
fertilizers and irrigation, these vege-
tables actually had been raised out Of
season, were Of unusual size and re-
markably fine quality.
This fair showed the Puerto Ricanos
how they could feed themselves and
how they could shake of their bond
age to imports. It proved OF such
popularity that calls came from diff
ferent parts of the island to have the
exhibits brought there. The fair had
a canning and food demonstration
section which attracted and educated
thousands Of visitors. This was but
one Of the educational devices en-
ployed by P. r. E. r. A. to change
the agricultural customs of the
islanders. Another was the sending
OF lecturers from community to COM
mun1ty, telling people what to grow
and how to grow 1t and how to con-
serve the food products when grown.
At the same time that the basic
program Is being pushed forward to
end these dietary sicknesses, q great
deal Is being done for the peoples
health In ~ free clinics where spe-
cial emphasis is given to health for
expectant mothers and for children.
Infant mortality in Puerto Rico Is
very high. due to q great extent to
the ignorance IS we'll as the poverty
OF the mothers, who often do not
know how to feed their children even
when they can afford to buy the right
kind Of food. In these clinics they
are given not only medical aid but
also instruction as to diet and nutri-
tion. Supplementary to the medical
work has been the operation Of milk
stations In most Of the municipalities
where mothers and children can OBJ
tain milk, whose cost would otherwise
be IS cents, at 2 cents a quart. In
the schools some $4,000 under
nourished children have regularly
been given luncheons.
Housing Plans Charted.
Allied with the health program,
and practically part Of it, is the i'm
provement in housing. The Puerto
Rican housing program Is not as am
bilious as that Of Knickerbocker VIII
lage in New York, but then the Puerto
Rican slums are quite beyond the
worst imaginings of housing REFORM
ers. Shanties are the rule, shanties
made of old stats and oil cans and
bits Of building paper. ramshackle.
ready to collapse at the
slightest provocation; shanties To-
Gated in swamps. grouped around
open sewage drains: shanties infested
with vermin. overflowing with chill
dren and surrounded by garbage.
In San Juan, the Tres Talleres,
Puerto TERRA and Shanghai slums
are of this latter type, actually below
sea level The Relief Administration
raised parts of them on stills above
the flooded swamp area, and the Pub
lie Works Administration is pumping
fill from the harbor under them to
make solid ground. The necessity for
the harbor becomes q
for those who probably will
never take an ocean voyage. Some
times these swamp shacks are too far
gone to bear or deserve raising on
stills. In that event the Relief Ad-
demolishes them and re-
places them with others.
In other places where these un-
speakable slums are on dry ground,
the administration pulls them down
and then new houses are put up in
rather monotonous but clean rows to
replace them.
To denizens of sky-scraper apart
ments, they look rather small and
decidedly unpretentious. But to the
Puerto Ricans, for whom they were
built, they are, by comparison with
their old homes, palaces. The first
slum project, carried out without any
fanfare, was put through for the
benefit of the people Of Arecibo. In
this town more than 100 families had
been living in an old, tumble-down
hospital. They had been rendered
homeless by the last hurricane. Now
they already have some IS houses to
live in. Next came San Juan slums.
And so, from city to city. the admin
iDtgstion intends to move, sweeping