Evening star., 1941-12-02
Puerto Rico Defense
Program Encounters
Political Obstacles
Island Setup Giving
Uncle Sam One Of His
Worst Headaches
By STEPHEN TRUMBULL,

By STEPHEN TRUMBULL,
Special Dispatch to The Star and North
American Newspaper Alliance.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Dec. q
Forty three years Of experimentation
with brotherly love is turning sour
here at this prematurely termed
"Gibreltar of the Caribbean and
our heretofore easygoing Uncle
Sam is pulling his whiskers in per-
pleXity
The American flag has flown here
since 1898. Some $500 900 000-taX
dollars-were dropped here In social
experiments before the coming OF
the first bombers and the first OF
the millions, many more millions
for defense.
Yet the Army and the Navy, IN
the frantic rush to transfer thls
aggregation of swamps and noun
rains into a steel and concrete bull
vark of defense, find themselves
IN a land more Spanish than Amer
ican The streamlined prepared
ness machine is crashing. and 100
often begging, in terrain OF local
politics. local hates, local gouglng
and local throat cutting. The pave
ment of gold is cracked and broken.
Bad Defense Headache.
It's one Of the worst headaches
IN the entire defense picture. Ihe
direct actionists cry martial law,
end that suggestion has been made
in the Nations Capital for both
Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Those
of the long-range view answer:
mo! That would be exactly the
ammunition the Axis wants for a
renewed attack on our recently
strengthened friendships the length
and breadth of Latin America!
So the wild. crazy-quilt pattern
of conflicting means to conflicting
ends goes on with weird mixture
of multimillion-dollar boners and
heroic achievements. To date ap-
proximately sl00,O00,000 has been
spent for defense against this set
ting. Another 100000, 900 probably
will be spent before this place even
epproa ches Gibraltar or the Pearl
Earbor classification.
It's tomorrow's headache as well
as today's because this is more than
a defense spearhead This Is
central police station for post-Wars
so this and three succeeding articles
ere dedicated to an attempted close
range view Of this spot destined for
increasing headline prominence.
The United States Navy here is
cient Job of it despite the handicaps
of a s28,000,00 base OF operations
which was a bottomless swamp two
years ago and which threatens to
return to that classification after
each heavy rain.
The Army here is at peace,
champing at the bit for piece OF
the action, and being bored stiff.
Land and Price Boom.
Some sl2o,oO0 is dropping each
day into a land where the normal,
peacetime income of the majority
of the people is approximately 40
cents per day. The result is a land
and price boom as wild as Florida's
most insane moments OF the past.
Roads and highways designed for
the bullock cart are clogged and
iammed with cussing, horn-tootlng
drivers of motor powered monsters
Of construction and destruction.
Abject poverty rubs shoulders with
lavish display. Slun sections as bad
or worse than anything in the
Western Hemisphere, slum sections
without the slightest pretext OF
toilet facilities, sprawl within sight
of the Army and Nays best.
And in the midst of all OF this
come the conflicts of authority.
The agencies set up with the bene-
VIOLENT idea of self-government dur
ing the last 43 years are not seeing
eve to eye with the agencies which
have a job to do The land of
manana would put reservations on
the urgent attempts to make it the
land of today.
Take one quick look at a con-
crete example in passing and hold
it in mind for later return for
details. On seven of the Army air
ports. which are but one part OF
this defense picture, one of the
agencies of today, the frequently
damned w. P. A. has worked Tor
IS months. Two of the airports are
completed, and they're good ones.
Two others are 85 per cent COM
plete. one IS IS per cent along the
way to full-time use and the re-
naming two stand so and IS per
cent complete, respectively.
Road Encounters Delay.
Turn now to an equally vital seq
ment of the local defense scene,
where the agencies are piled upon
the agencies. where the agencies
directly under Federal control of
Uncle Sam are trying to live up to
the policy of brotherly love with
the agencies created during the ex-
perimenting past to make Puerto
Rico safe for the Puerto Rican
ponticos. This picture has for its
motif some 80 miles of thus far
non existing new road which would,
if. as and when completed, con-
meet many of these troops and
equipment concentrations.
This road has been in the works"
with the insular authorities for more
than two years AS this is being
written work actually is under way
on one 9 of those so miles, and this
work is being done by w. P. A.
It's a beautiful road, on paper. 1t
will be some s6,600,000 worth Of
construction and right Of way. The
optimists believe it may be COM
pleted in time for World War III.
Meantime. in dire emergency,
heavy equipment could make all of 4
miles an hour on the narrow, high
crowned, twisting. tortuous trial
which connects these bases.
When will this road be finished,
and how? Quien sabe? Who
knows?
This is just a rough idea of the
fn1lnuJc thu