Evening star., 1941-12-03
Poverty and Disease
Make Puerto Rico
Problem for Army
New Defense Base Area
Hompered by Natives
Buckwurdness
Second Of a series
Bv STEPHEN TRUMBULL.

fScCOHu o. SefIeSJ
By STEPHEN TRUMBULL.
Correspondent, of The Star ard North
American Newspaper Alliance
SAN JUAN. Puerto Rico. Dec. 8
The headaches of today at this No.
Atlantic outpost aren't new.
THEY'VE been going on since the
United States took over in 1893.
But they are more acute. now that
the Nation is faced with the urgent
business of making this ring of
steel and reinforced concrete. a pri-
mary base for ships and Wide-rang-
Ing bombing planes. a stronghold
for defense-or for attack.
The 100000 900 that went into
futile attempts at establishing
American standards here in the dis
tant past before World War II
didn't begin to buy enough aspirin.
Filth. some of the Sllmiest Sums OF
the New World poverty. disease ana
potent brand of Latin politics are
still here. for the Army and Navy
hcuseWarmln9.
Whether the Army ana the navy
ran clean up this new front Naro
remains TO be seen. Some hlgh-
class economists have spared with
the problem until they we're punch
drunk. but the problem still Is mere
coming up stronger. IN the Ma
tion's Capital there are hopes that
Dr Rexford Guy TugWell. original
New Deal brain truster and now
Puerto Picos Governor General. VIII
have an idea here which Will get
evav from the counter proposal OF
martial law. Martial law msht 90
TOO manv things to the good nelgh-
hor policy to which we stand COM
mltted
Still Not Americanized.
There are too many things here
that don't make sense.
:. After 43 years under the American
flag. Puerto Rico today Is more
Spanish than independent Cuba. A
non Spanish speaking tourist can
find his way around Havana. In San
Juan he should stick to the obvious
or hire an EngliSh-speaklng taxi
driver. of which there are lew.
Puerto Rlcan schools are blllngual.
The policeman in the downtown
area. like all Puerto Ricans, has
been an American citizen officially
since 1917, vet mis- English is very,
very sketchy. or completely non
existent.
. Ask a resident Of Nassau his ma
tpnalitv and. though ne may be
very black and never have been OH
his island. the answer never varies:
English, Sari'
Ask a resident Of Martinique his
nationality and. even in the chaos
OF TO-DAY. ne will answer, French.
Ask resident OF Puerto Rico his
nationality and the reply. SO times
out of 100. is Puerto Rican."
SO mavbe II is our fault. We
didn't come in here with engraved
invitations in 1898 We were civiliz-
ing en- with Krags and Sprlngfelds
In those DAYS. but the idealIsts still
hnileve those s300,O0000 should
heve made some impression.
lets see what those $500 900 600
diG bump into. and what those who
man this new defense outpost will
continue to bump into Why all this
ro,ettv? Why all this filth? Can't
something be done about it?
Farms Prove Failure.
Well. 100000 people are now
living on an island that once sup
ported only passinglv fair 250000.
Those 100000 seek subsistence from
an agricultural economy on an is
land where there are but 1000 900
tlllable acres Among the silly sug-
,gestions of the past was one of
small subsistence farms. Then the
experts found out that it would re-
nuire two and one-half of these
acres to provide the barest neces-
sites for a subsistence farm. So
that was out
.. Some of the s30OO00OO0 has gone
for experiments in housing, so let's
see what the Army and the Navy
are up against in any plan of this
nature. Say 1000 families are lifted
out OF the mud, what's the long
range effect of that? At the pres
ent moment the native population,
with supreme contempt for rabbits
and guinea pigs, is turning in
birth rate that exceeds even the
tremendous death rate by 112 heads
a day.
So those slums fill right up again.
Bigger and smellier SlumS. and the
w. P. A. was called in on one phase
of this. Faced with statistics show
ing that 81 per cent of the popula-
non lived without toilet facilities
Of any sort this agency constructed,
IN San Juan and throughout the is
land, 10000 of those structures made
famous by Chic Sale-and did this
help?
In the more populouS centers some
Of them still stand In the rural
areas many of them met with a
strange fate. The Jlbaros tpeon
farmers, looked with wonder upon
the new structures. and looked with
distaste upon their nearby dwellings
of packing cases and fiattened-out
oil cans.
Parasite Diseases Rampant.
The inspectors went their way.
and first the shiny sheet iron roofs.
then the doors and finally the sides
became part of the jibaro dwelling
II the inspectors returned and made
too much trouble. the iibaro would
fix everything by putting up few
palm fronds around the sole re-
naming part of the w. P. A. dona-
tion. So 81 per cent of the popula-
ton still is without toilet facilities
and parasite ailments hold holiday.
The population has climbed until
o. Il l To the SnIa re