712 The National Geographic Magazine 



PROSPEROUS PORTO RICO 



THE past several years have brought 

 much happiness and prosperity to 

 our little island in the West Indies. In 

 an address to the National Geographical 

 Society, November 10, the Treasurer of 

 Porto Rico, Hon. William F. Willoughby, 

 stated that the commerce of the island 

 had doubled since 1901 ; the number of 

 schools and of children at school had also 

 doubled in the same period, and the 

 health of the islanders had greatly im- 

 proved, owing to discovery of Dr Bailey 

 K. Ashford and Dr King of a means to 

 cure them of tropical anemia, from which 

 90 per cent of the population had for- 

 merly suffered. 



The exports from Porto Rico amount 

 to $24,000,000 annually, of which $19,- 

 000,000 come to the United States. The 

 imports amount to $22,000,000, of which 

 $19,000,000 are from the United States. 

 The trade with the United States is now 

 nine times as great as in 1896. Sugar 

 and tobacco are the principal exports, 

 but coffee and citrus fruits are increasing 

 more rapidly. Mr Willoughby believes 

 that the Porto Rican coffee is the best 

 coffee in the world, and that in a few 

 years it will be in great demand. 



The railroad mileage has about doubled 

 since American occupation, and the island 

 will soon have a belt line around its coast, 

 over two-thirds being already completed. 

 In five years the Americans have in- 

 creased the mileage of macadamized 

 roads one and a half times over what it 

 took the Spaniards 400 years to build. 

 Mules, traction engines, and automobiles 

 have supplanted the oxen and carts. The 

 trolley car has also been introduced. 



In 1898 there were 539 schools in the 

 island, with an attendance of 22,000. Last 

 year this number had increased to 1,104, 

 with 45,000 pupils. English is taught in 

 all schools, and the Porto Ricans are all 

 anxious to give their children a good edu- 

 cation. Those who can afford it send 

 them to the United States. 



The climate is very healthful, there 

 rarely ever being a case of yellow fever, 

 with very little smallpox, typhoid, or 

 malaria. 



Perhaps the greatest achievement of 



the American control is the discovery of 

 Drs Ashford and King, by means of 

 which the people can be cured of tropical 

 anemia. These gentlemen noticed that 

 large numbers of the inhabitants were 

 suffering from a wasting disease which 

 weakened and ultimately destroyed them. 

 They obtained from the legislature a 

 grant of $5,000 to experiment; found 

 that the wasting disease was caused by 

 a parasitic worm in the intestines, and 

 proceeded to devise a remedy. 



Their grant was increased, and finally 

 the work was made part of the public 

 service, with an appropriation last year 

 of $50,000, and stations have been estab- 

 lished at convenient points throughout 

 the island where the natives are treated 

 free. The efficiency of the laboring pop- 

 ulation has been much improved by the 

 work. 



THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION 



THE experiences of the past summer 

 have strengthened Mr Walter 

 Wellman's conviction that the air-ship is 

 the only method of reaching the Pole, 

 and that at present the dirigible balloon 

 is the only feasible air-ship. The past 

 summer he completed his base at Spitz- 

 bergen, which is to be his starting point, 

 and has now between seven and eight 

 hundred tons of supplies there. He has 

 built in Spitzbergen the largest balloon- 

 house in the world, 180 feet long, 82 feet 

 broad, and 82 feet high. He has two 

 hundred tons of sulphuric acid and eighty 

 tons of iron filings ready to generate his 

 hydrogen gas. During the winter months 

 more powerful motors are being made for 

 his air-ship, so that the total horse-power 

 of the vessel will be 150. 



Major Henry E. Hersey, of the United 

 States Weather Bureau, who was ap- 

 pointed as the representative of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society last March, 

 will go north with Mr Wellman again in 

 the same capacity. Major Hersey, it will 

 be remembered, accompanied Lieutenant 

 Lahm in the recent long-distance balloon 

 race from Paris to England, which was 

 won by these two Americans, to the as- 

 tonishment of France, which had a dozen 

 entries. 



