WX- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES EDWARD A. ODELL Director of the Defartvient of the West Indies NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES E first civil governor of Porto Rico, Charles W. Allen, in his inaugural address said: “Whether this new era shall turn out well or ill now largely depends upon yourselves. The greatest constitution makers can only lay the foundation. The building of the superstructure, whether or not it shall be stately, beautiful, and enduring, must rest upon the indus¬ try and wisdom of the people themselves.” When this era of new things came to the West Indies about thirty years ago, the first and greatest need was leadership. These beautiful, fertile, tropical lands were in need of almost all the things that go to make up favorable conditions of twentieth cen¬ tury Christian civilization. They needed roads, mu¬ nicipal buildings, docks, and parks. They needed churches, schools, hospitals, preventive sanitation, and, above all, the means for providing those from their own people who were to create this new order of things. For many generations their leaders had been foreigners. This was true of practically every phase of life. Their governors, engineers, editors, and landlords, as well as priests and educators, were of the same racial ancestry as those living in the West Indies, but they were foreigners and not identified with the development of the Islands and certainly not interested in the - 3 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES development of native leadership. Native sons and daughters must rise to meet the challenge of Governor Allen’s eloquent appeal. They did just this and the story of it is inspiring. In 1898 there was but one school building in Porto Rico erected for that purpose. The military road from San Juan to Ponce was the only well- built highway. Lighters crowded the shores and carried freight to and from steamers anchored far out in the harbors of principal ports. The churches even of the Roman faith were found only on the plazas of cities and their priests were foreign- born. There were no native churches of other creeds. Cuba, rich and the greatest of the Antilles, was no better off, and conditions in the Dominican Republic were even worse. Today roads skirt the shores of Porto Rico and wind their way across the mountains. There are two thousand schools extending from kindergarten to a splendidly equipped university. Docks have been built in several of the largest ports. Churches of every faith join hands in inspiring service. During this period foreign leadership has almost entirely dis¬ appeared from the West Indies. The foundations are laid and the superstructure has commenced to rise, built by their own well-trained hands. In Cuba and the Dominican Republic not a foreigner occupies a post of importance. In Porto Rico only - 4 4 fr - - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES a very few Continentals are now sent down from Washington. The Presbyterian Church is justly proud of the part it has had and now has in this preparation for leadership. Native presbyteries in Cuba and Porto Rico, with only a single representative of our Board in evangelical work in each island, are carrying on the program of seventy organized churches. The schools and hospitals are each year entrusting an increasing part of their work and the responsibility for administration to native trained workers. Porto Rico and Cuba are maintaining seminaries for the preparation of Christian workers. Santo Domingo, our newest field, is sending its candidates to the Evangelical Seminary of Porto Rico for training. In Cuba the first class of five was gradu¬ ated last year and is doing excellent work. The Rev. H. G. Smith, President of the Seminary, trained these boys in his own home with the aid of members of the faculty of Cardenas College and such outside help as he could get from pastors of churches in Havana. As this goes to press ne¬ gotiations are being made for the organization of a Union Theological Seminary for the Island of Cuba that will follow somewhat the lines of the seminary in Porto Rico. This will mark a new milestone in the development toward a national - °<{ 5 J3**- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES church for Cuba. Dr. James A. McAllister of our Board is president of the Evangelical Seminary in Porto Rico and under his leadership there is an ever-widening influence of the seminary as well as a constant improvement in the curriculum. Of the graduating class last May two were from Vene¬ zuela, the first men in that country to receive seminary training, and a third returned to his na¬ tive country, the Dominican Republic, the first graduate for the evangelical cause in that Island. For the first time the seminary conferred the de¬ gree of Bachelor of Theology, it being probably the first time this degree was ever given in Latin America. These men were all graduates of the University of Porto Rico, situated on the hill just opposite the seminary, as well as of the Seminary. Two of the graduates won scholarships offered by northern institutions, where they are at present doing graduate work. The members of the facul¬ ty, representing five denominations, are exerting an influence throughout the Island. Their ser¬ vices are in demand for meetings of a public na¬ ture, summer conferences, annual meetings of church organizations as well as other church func¬ tions. The Polytechnic Institute at San German is furnishing much of the material from which the Church is drawing its leadership. This very - 6 }>*- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES worthy institution, of which Dr. J. William Harris is president, reports this year an enrollment of four hundred. Forty-four of these have reached the college department. The hope of this insti¬ tution, as expressed in its charter of 1920 reported to the Carnegie Corporation on March 21, 1923, is to develop mentally, morally, and physically the youth of both sexes through a regularly ac¬ cepted study of liberal arts and sciences, the study of the Bible (not from a sectarian standpoint), and the performance of daily manual labor, thus to produce American citizens of trained minds, sound bodies, well-rounded figures, character, resource¬ ful and independent, and of a steady Christian faith. Every student is required to perform week¬ ly twelve hours of industrial training, which re¬ quirement is made both of school and college students. The scope of the work covers for girls, in addition to the academic curriculum, everything in relation to the industrial side of the home. The boys do all the outside work that is possible for them to accomplish; this includes agriculture, road building, construction of homes. There is no sphere of the life of Porto Rico that is not looking forward to native leadership trained under this strong evangelical influence. The church is perhaps more familiar with the work of the Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan -Hg( 7 ►--- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES than with that of any similar institution in mission fields. Last year approximately 51,000 patients were cared for in the wards and through the clinics, and yet this is not the greatest contribution the hospital is making to the life of the Island. The greatest service is the preparation of native nurses and the inspiration given to every munici¬ pality of the Island to erect for themselves hos¬ pitals like El Presbiteriano, as it is affectionately known throughout the Island. Noteworthy honors have come to the hospital as a just reward for efficient and devoted service. Dr. W. R. Galbreath, medical director, has recently been made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, in recogni¬ tion of his distinguished work. The hospital has been included in the list of “Approved Graduate Medical Schools.” It has also won further dis¬ tinction by enrollment among the Hospitals for Higher Instruction in Tropical Medicine and in¬ clusion in the Hospital Standardization reports. While deeply appreciative of these honors, Miss Jennie Ordway, who has for twenty years been superintendent, points with greatest pride to the graduates who are in charge of the laboratories and who carry responsibility for the nursing. The government has several times attempted the prep¬ aration of nurses but without great success. And so today the Presbyterian Nurses’ Training School - ^ 8 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES is supplying nurses for every important position of the nursing profession. The president of the National Association of Nurses is a graduate of the Presbyterian Training School. In Cuba where the government has been unable to supply teachers and schools sufficient in number to care for the public needs, our Board is conduct¬ ing nine schools, and for their leadership has or¬ ganized at Cardenas a normal department. Dur¬ ing the past year the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. R. L. Wharton, entrusted the entire work of one school to Cuban workers, and when the gov¬ ernment required that the principal of high schools be a native Cuban or a foreigner of five years’ residence in the Island, he was able to appoint as principal of the school at Sancti Spiritus a young man who had received his training in the Presby¬ terian School at Cardenas. The pastor of the church in Sancti Spiritus, erected beside the school, is a native Cuban, a graduate of a theological sem¬ inary. These two native sons are carrying on the work of Christian education and the pastorate side by side in this important city in the center of the Island where thirty years ago the gospel had never been preached. This is the only high school in the district and the church has sole responsibility for the evangelical cause in a city and district of twenty thousand. -9 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES Recently I went back into the hills of Porto Rico to a town where I first preached in 1906. There was no church then. A little mission school taught fifty children in an improvised schoolroom behind a grocery store. We preached in those days with police protection because many people did not understand us and misinterpreted our mo¬ tives. What a change! Now there is a neat, well- kept chapel, located in the center of the town. The pastor, a Porto Rican, introduced me as an “old missionary.” On his right was an orchestra. On his left were the officers of the church, both trained by the missionary, the Rev. Byron G. Sager. The room was full of Presbyterians and in auto¬ mobiles that filled the streets sat friends who wanted to hear the message and the singing of hymns. The wife of this young pastor is a daugh¬ ter of a former mayor of the town. I visited them in their rented manse. They had been in New York, they spoke English, they seemed to belong to a new age, and they did. The Marina House under the direction of Miss Clara E. Hazen, has for many years been a verit¬ able refuge in the downtown playa part of the city of Mayaguez. Hundreds of lives have been touched by the work of this institution, but today Miss Hazen is devoting her greatest energies to the training of Porto Rican women who will carry - 4 10 }>»- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES this work into other cities throughout the Island. In Cuba, Miss Della C. Kibler three years ago took the first steps for the organization of a Dea¬ coness Training School for Cuban women. Both Miss Hazen and Miss Kibler feel that the success of the evangelical cause in Latin America awaits the day when every organized church and mission station will have a trained woman worker. The impact of the evangelical church on the community is well illustrated in the work of the native pastor in Mayaguez, Porto Rico. The teach¬ ing force of the city as well as the Insular Board of Education has for three years unanimously elected the Rev. Gustavo E. Archilla, pastor of our church, principal of the high school. Unwilling to become separated from what he considered his most important work, the Church, and at the same time desirous of serving the youth of his city, he has carried on these two very difficult tasks, the direction of a high school of five hundred boys and girls and the pastorate of the church in this large port city. This position has brought him into con¬ tact with the young people of the entire district and hundreds of lives have come to know Christ through his influence in the morning chapel and through interviews in the office of the principal. One of the outstanding features of the educa¬ tional life in Porto Rico in recent years has been - Hg[ 11 fa - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES the organization and development in all the larger towns and cities of a Parents and Teachers Asso¬ ciation. The pastors of all evangelical churches have been leaders in this movement. Four Pres¬ byterian pastors are presidents of their local asso¬ ciations, and many more hold important offices. The Rev. Angel Archilla of Mayaguez is a mem¬ ber of the executive board of the National Asso¬ ciation. Such a public recognition of Christian leadership after less than thirty years is an indica¬ tion of the character of the work our church has been doing, as well as the interest of the people in the cause we represent. The creation and distribution of Christian liter¬ ature has not had the place in the program of the different Boards in Latin America to which it is entitled. It has only been in the last few years that steps have been taken to stimulate authorship. The lack of facilities for publication work has been partly responsible for this. The Union Press of Porto Rico, supported by the combined effort of seven denominations, and The Heraldo Cristiano and Book Store of Havana have made notable progress in the last year. The Rev. Sylvester Jones, in charge of the Book Store in Havana, re¬ ports sales amounting to more than $1 1,000 for the calendar year and places the number of pages of religious literature actually placed in circulation -•*"{ 12 )►—- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES through their book store and press at 9,500,000. Some of the most important organizations of Ha¬ vana are now turning to this book store for litera¬ ture. A Porto Rican, the Rev. P. M. Acosta, is in charge of the press and a Cuban, the Rev. H. B. Someillan, is editor of the Heraldo. In Porto Rico Dr. P. W. Drury has continued the very unusual work of the union paper and press. For many years the Puerto Rico Evangelico has been the church organ of all evangelical de¬ nominations in the Island. It has built up a circu¬ lation which is greater than the paid circulation of any religious or secular periodical in the Island. This coming year this paper will be issued weekly and a trained journalist, a Porto Rican, of course, will devote his full time to this work. In spite of the somewhat unfavorable economic conditions, the gifts last year were the greatest ever received. In Cuba six churches raised more than $2,000 each and several others approached this fig¬ ure. In Havana one church raised $2,100 toward self-support, $1,600 for a building fund, and contributed to all the Boards of the Church. The native churches of Porto Rico raised $13,000 for self-support and for next year have pledged 20 per cent of the entire salary budget of their pas¬ tors. In addition to their gifts for themselves, they have given generously to the Boards and have - -4 13 ]►-- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES raised $2,000 for work in Santo Domingo. There are eleven chapels in Porto Rico that have been constructed entirely by local funds without any assistance from the Board. The mission churches of Santo Domingo, where work was started only five years ago, made a very remarkable contribu¬ tion of $2.50 per member for their work this past year, and the hospital in Santo Domingo City raised more than $17,000 toward the support of its work. Conditions are not alike in the three islands where our Board has work. There are, of course, certain similarities. Likenesses of race, ancestry, and climate. But they differ just now very much in political, economic, and social conditions. The very conditions that make them different make necessary native leadership, public officials, captains of industry, educators, and ministers of the gospel. Porto Rico is a part of the United States. The American flag is aloft on every public building and school throughout the Island. Cuba is an inde¬ pendent republic, the largest of the group, the richest and most prosperous. Santo Domingo, while independent, has for twenty years sustained a distinct relationship to the United States, but now is making a fresh start in self-government. Roads penetrating the interior of the Island and connecting the northern and southern shores have -Hg{ 14 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES only just been completed under the direction of engineers of the American Marines. A hospital equipped by the Marines has been taken over by the government. A little over a year ago the so-called third republic was inaugurated and Gen¬ eral Horatio Vasquez was elected to the presidency. The National Guard composed of fourteen hun¬ dred enlisted men and one hundred and one offi¬ cers with modern equipment and training, easily transferred over the newly constructed highways, have inspired confidence in the government to guarantee public security. Foreign trade has shown an increase of seven and one-half million dollars, about seven per cent over the previous year. In Cuba the election of General Machado is believed by many to be the most favorable since the time of Don Tomas Estrada Palma, the first and most beloved president of the Island. General Machado begins his administration under most favorable circumstances. He enjoys the confidence of the great body of laboring men, and represen¬ tatives of large corporations have expressed their satisfaction in his election. His program calls for construction of new highways and for the develop¬ ment of a public school system as well as other improvements which have given great confidence to the entire Cuban population. And such con¬ fidence is needed. In Cuba nearly one-half of -15 ►- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES the children are still without school facilities and only one high school for each of the six provinces is maintained by republic funds. Roads have been constructed but there is no system of highways ade¬ quate for the development of the interior of the Republic. Perhaps one-third of the Island still remains uncultivated. Industry is maintained to a great extent by foreign labor. In Havana alone there are 50,000 Chinese. In Porto Rico there are many outstanding de¬ velopments of a public nature that augur well for the future. Of these none is of greater signifi¬ cance, writes the Rev. Arthur James, Superinten¬ dent of Presbyterian Missions in Porto Rico, than the re-nomination by President Coolidge of Hon. Juan B. Huyke as Commissioner of Education for the Island. Mr. Huyke was the first native Porto Rican to be nominated to this important post and his re-election after four years of service has been extremely gratifying. He is ready on all occasions to be of assistance to the Christian forces of the Island. Other names could be mentioned with Mr. Huyke’s if the space of this story permitted, but such signs of promise stand out in contrast t6 the overwhelming economic, industrial and moral problems which will test the stuff of native sons who have assumed responsibility for leadership. Hon. Santiago Iglesias, representing the Free Fed- -°*€{ 16 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES eration of Working Men in Porto Rico, has recent¬ ly declared that “four-fifths of the working popu¬ lation of Porto Rico are without permanent em¬ ployment, that thousands of children die yearly from anemia, tuberculosis, malaria, and other dis¬ eases, and that 50,000 children are deprived of education.” In his last report to Congress, Gov¬ ernor Towner says, “In Porto Rico we have reached the limit beyond which we cannot go with¬ out an increasing proportion of our population con¬ tinuing permanently unemployed. Even with the full development of all of our now untilled lands and with intensive cultivation of that which now is used, it is doubtful if we could give full time employment to all our people.” Hon. Antonio R. Barcelo, formerly president of the Senate and leader of the majority party, in a somewhat more hopeful way says, “Porto Rico like other densely populated areas has health problems, economic problems and social problems, but Porto Rico has also plans in operation for the relief of physical, social or economic unhealthiness wherever it may exist. The University of Porto Rico, the Depart¬ ment of Health and Education and of the Interior, to say nothing of numerous private and semi-pri¬ vate organizations, are more from day to day oc¬ cupying themselves with the improvements which are the test of progress.” -17 - NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES This is only a part of the great challenge which confronts these noble hearted leaders of the new day in the West Indies. With proper equipment, they feel and those who know them and the task share their faith, that it can be accomplished, but it must be done now. With the spirit of progress and increasing facilities for public instruction, the place of the Church must be determined in the next twenty-five years. Nearly seventy-five per cent of our church organizations are still without buildings. The Seminary for the training of Cuban leaders shares the manse with a pastor. Even the Evangelical Seminary of Porto Rico is still without proper buildings and equipment. In San Juan the Presbyterian Hospital, the outstand¬ ing institution of its kind in Latin America, turns thousands of patients away annually because the facilities are not sufficient to care for them. Sure¬ ly the accomplishments of the past thirty years, the courage, faith, and consecration of the native leaders, the urgency and promise of the new day will awaken the Church of North America to place in the hands of these workers tools with which the task can be done. 18 NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES Questions on the Text 1. What was the first and greatest need in the West Indies in 1898? 2. What changes have taken place in social, re¬ ligious, and economic conditions since 1898? 3. What Presbyterian institutions are providing leadership? In what ways? 4. What church agencies in Cuba and Porto Rico have been established for the distribution of Christian literature? With what results? 5. What evidences are there of the spirit of self- sacrifice in the native church? What progress towards self-support? 6. What is the political relationship of each Island to the United States? Name similar¬ ities and differences among them? 7. What examples are there of Christian leader¬ ship in secular life? 8. What can we do by way of equipment to make effective native Christian leadership? -19 ►- NEW DAYS IN THE WEST INDIES For Your Consideration Church Buildings Rural Chapels, $300 City Churches, $15,000 To complete Cuba Evangelical Seminary Fund, $ 20,000 Teachers’ Cottage, Evangelical Seminary, Porto Rico, $6,000 Support of bed at Presbyterian Hospital, Porto Rico, $25 up Salaries, native pastors, Bible readers, teachers, community workers, $500 to $1,000 Scholarships Polytechnic Institute, $100 Nurses’ Training Schools, Porto Rico and Dominican Republic, $100 The Board solicits the interest, prayers, and gifts of churches, Sunday schools, missionary organiza¬ tions, and individuals. Remember the Board with a legacy in your will. Annuity bonds are issued at liberal rates of interest. E. Graham Wilson, Treasurer BOARD OF NATIONAL MISSIONS of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. {Legal Title ) 156 Fifth Avenue New York, N. Y. 4-2G-I-4M.