THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE WATER CROP 



249 



by the Alediterranean traffic before the 

 Turks took Constantinople. 



Cuba also is expecting vast opportuni- 

 ties for development and expansion grow- 

 ing out of the operation of the canal. 

 The Cubans are so enthusiastic as to pro- 

 pose the cutting of a canal through the 

 island just west of Havana large enough 

 to accommodate all the shipping that 

 passes from the Atlantic seaboard to 

 Panama and vice "■ ^rsa. 



It is not unrea onable to assume that 

 if the people o^ Middle America can 

 secure fair and pi ,;er governmental con- 

 ditions after the c inpletion of the Pan- 

 ama Canal, they Ct'.n do what Cuba has 

 done in the 13 years smce the first Amer- 

 ican intervention. 



Since that time the umber of people 

 in the island able to read and write has 

 increased 140 per cent. The mortality 

 rate has been cut down from 33.68 per 

 thousand to 12.69, ^^"^ only Australia, 

 among all the countries of the world, can 

 make a better showing. 



The balance of trade has risen from a 

 deficit of $27,000,000 a year to a surplus 

 of $^0,000,000. The mileage of macadam 



roads has increased from 158 miles to 

 928. Some $350,000,000 has been spent 

 since then in the rehabilitation of the 

 country. And even then Cuba's govern- 

 ment has not been all that it might be, 

 nor is it at the end of its possibilities of 

 progress. Only a bare fraction of its 

 agricultural lands are under cultivation; 

 only a part of its mineral wealth has 

 been developed. It might easily be made 

 to quadruple its foreign trade. 



But assuming that Central America cati 

 only be brought up to the standard of 

 Cuba today, its foreign trade would 

 amount to a full billion dollars a year 

 instead of a beggarly 65 million today. 

 It would have 10,000 miles of railroad 

 where it has less than 1,000 miles today. 

 It would have 5,000 miles of macadam 

 roads as compared with a few hundred 

 today. It would have a population of 

 11,000,000 as compared with 5,600,000 

 today. 



This and more will certainly come to 

 Central America if good government 

 there comes apace with a completed Pan- 

 ama Canal. 



IMPORTANT NOTICE TO OUR READERS 



OWING to the very large increase 

 in the edition of the N.xtionai. 

 GiioGRAPHic Mag.vzine, the ca- 

 pacity of our printers, who have the 

 largest printing establishment in Wash- 

 ington, has been temporarily overtaxed, 

 with the result that the magazine is many 

 weeks late. In September, 19 12, we were 

 printing 140,000 copies, whereas the edi- 

 tion for January and February had leaped 

 to 210,000 copies. The present magazine 

 also makes a larger book. 



This increased popularity of the maga- 

 zine is very gratifying; however, such an 

 extraordinary growth was beyond all cal- 

 culation. 



Messrs. Judd & Detweiler, Inc., who 

 have so admirably printed the magazine 

 for 25 years, are now building a large 

 new plant, which will be entirely devoted 

 to the printing of the National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine. Meanwhile, new 

 presses are being installed in their old 

 building, and two shifts are working night 

 and day. Every effort is being made to 

 catch up with the calendar, and we hope 

 soon that the readers will receive the 

 magazine more regularly than has been 

 possible in the past two months. Mean- 

 while, the members may rest assured that 

 the increased edition will mean an even 

 more valuable and entertaining magazine. 



