TinE OLD 
 
 AND NEW 
 
 in 
 
 SANTO 
 
'N^srr YORK 
 
 WEST INDIES 
 
 SHOW I NS 
 
 SAKTO DOMINGO 
 
 
 
 
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 Sanio Domingo occupies two-thirds of the second largest island in the West Indies. It lies 
 squarely between Cuba and Porto Rico and is two-fifths as large as the former and six 
 
 times as large as the latter. 
 
At once ivith blossoms and uoith ripening fruits, 
 Fruits that with fragrant nectar richly flow; 
 Here all the flowers through the season blow .' ' 
 
/ I / O area of similar size on the American Continent is so filled with history, with 
 / r romance, with beauty, with economic possibilities. Pan American problems, with 
 1 opportunities for Christian service as is the little country of Santo Domingo. 
 
 j Here Columbus landed on his first trip to America and here he established 
 his first American settlement. Here he lived in greatest happiness and here one still sees 
 the old tower in which he was imprisoned by his enemies and whence he was sent back 
 home in chains and disgrace. Here one uncovers his head before the most sacred shrine 
 of all America in the old cathedral where rests all that is mortal of the great discoverer. 
 Here one sees the sacred walls of the old palace erected by Christopher’s son, Diego, for 
 his proud wife. Princess Maria de Toledo. Here lived Hernando 
 Cortez and from here he set out to conquer the Empire of the Mon- 
 tezumas. Here is the house of Pizarro from which he began his 
 long journey to Peru and the conquest of the Incas whose plunder 
 was for so many years a source of wealth for Spain and which 
 gave rise to the traditions of the Spanish Main. Here lived Ponce 
 de Leon and here he fitted out his expedition before he wandered 
 through the New World seeking in vain for the fountain of youth. 
 
 It was here that the most noble of all the early friars. Padre de 
 las Casas, began his notable work of defending the Indians from 
 the cruelties of the Spaniards, and for this purpose imported the 
 first African slaves ever brought to America. 
 
Ruins of San Nicolas, the oldest Church in 
 America, erected at Santo Domingo in 1S02, 
 within ten years after settlement. 
 
 The toiver inhere Columbus was a prisoner, 
 and whence he was sent home in chains and 
 disgrace to face a bitter future. 
 
 Here was established the first University of America in 1538, a hundred years before the 
 United States had a college. Here stand the ruins of the oldest church in America. In 
 Santo Domingo, then, were concentrated all the most notable navigators, friars, savants 
 and Conquistadores who led the most romantic movement for the conquest of a new and 
 unknown continent that history will ever record. 
 
 Another reason why Santo Domingo is so intensely interesting is because of its wonderful 
 physical beauty and economic riches. Experts say it is capable of maintaining more people 
 to the square mile than any other country in the world. A ride through the country dis¬ 
 tricts fills one with admiration for the beauty of the landscape and the variety of its prod¬ 
 ucts. On the same road one passes great forests of cocoanut palms, coffee, bananas, sugar 
 cane, tobacco, oranges, pineapples, mangoes, aguacates, with such products as corn yield¬ 
 ing four crops annually. The fertility of the land is illustrated by the cane crop. In Texas 
 and Louisiana cane must be planted every year, in Porto Rico about once in three years, 
 in Cuba every ten years and in Santo Domingo once every eighteen to twenty years. All 
 of the finest hard woods of the world are found in abundance. Mahogany, lignum vitae, 
 tobacco wood, quebracho, rosewood and many others cover the mountain sides and val¬ 
 leys. Precious minerals are also found in considerable quantity. 
 
oi^is a and plains . . 
 
 for planting . . and for 
 villages . . the size and 
 
 ^eness'of the' rivers . . surpass anything that 
 he believed by one tvho had not seen thern.”^ 
 
 " ■ COLUMBUS.^ 
 
 The typical hut in which the 
 Dominican countryman lives. 
 These light structures and 
 thatched roofs shelter the great 
 majority of the Dominican 
 people. 
 
 The plantations, reclaimed from 
 the virgin la)igle of tropical vege- 
 lation, easily supply daily needs, 
 and afford valuable prod/lets for 
 foreign export 
 
In 1916 the American Marines 
 came. They collected debts, 
 built roads, helped, through 
 their officers, to establish edu¬ 
 cational work and started the 
 country toward the new mate¬ 
 rial civilization. 
 
 Now the Marines are gone; military restrictions are removed, and while a new trial of 
 democracy is being made it is exceedingly necessary for the Dominicans to have disin¬ 
 terested friends who can help guide toward the new days and who can aid them in 
 facing a thousand baffling problems which must be met. 
 
 F/ve hundred of these "Little Red School Houses’’ were 
 built in Santo Domingo under the directioti of the national 
 government ivith the help of a committee of parents in 
 
 each conununity. 
 
 In spite of glorious beginnings 
 and enormous resources, for 
 more than 300 years there was 
 little material progress and 
 much political strife. A small 
 circle of the cultured governed 
 while a very large proportion 
 of illiterates were exploited. 
 
 Carreterra Duarte, main road across the Island. 
 
Padre Bellini, first philanthropist of the Island. 
 
 Existing facilities for the care of the sick in this country are very poor. The number of 
 physicians is small, about one to every 8700 people, nearly all located in cities and towns. 
 Many villages have no physician and the sick must be carried long distances to the few 
 hospitals where a properly trained nursing corps is lacking. Physicians educated in the 
 country have not had an adequate plant in which to get practical hospital experience. 
 There is great need for improved opportunities for medical education. 
 
 The infant mortality is as high in some localities as 40%. Malaria, tuberculosis, hook¬ 
 worm and yaws are common. Municipal sanitation is only just beginning to be developed. 
 Organized charitable or philanthropic societies are almost unknown to the country. Such 
 hospitals as exist are private or supported by the lotteries. 
 
 Mothers to whom the 
 Baby Welfare Station of 
 the International Hos¬ 
 pital is available. Under- 
 nonrished children are 
 restored to normal 
 weight and inexperi¬ 
 enced mothers taught to 
 care for their children. 
 
International Hospital Leadin 
 
 in 
 
 Public Health 
 
 EGINNING with clinics and house to house visiting in 1920 a hospital of twenty- 
 five beds (expanded to crowd in forty at times) has been developed gradually in 
 rented quarters. Meagerly equipped, housed in a building not fit for hospital pur¬ 
 poses, the work of the hospital has been carried on successfully and continuously for 
 seven years. The regular training of nurses, under tremendous handicaps and difficulties, 
 is just beginning to bear fruit in the graduation of the first Dominican nurses. Miss 
 Violet M. Parker and Miss Katherine L. Fribley, graduate American nurses (Wesley 
 Memorial Hospital of Chicago) have carried the great responsibility of this training, the 
 baby welfare work and the management of the hospital. Until recently an American phy¬ 
 sician has been in charge but in an emergency the prominent Dominican physicians 
 Dr. Arturo Damiron Ricart and Dr. Cruz Ayala have taken the lead. The hospital has 
 never been more flourishing or of greater service than it is at present. Their waiting list 
 is growing. 
 
 
 • Vi 
 
 
 HPUPIP 
 
 mmmam 
 
 F »<'. . 1 
 
 Proposed design for the new hospital. 
 
During the past year 60 per cent of the Hospital’s budget has been raised in Santo 
 Domingo, in spite of poor facilities at their disposal; 665 patients were cared for in the 
 hospital, 5,596 new patients attended clinics and there were 5,192 revisits. A record of 
 the residence of clinic patients, as far back as 1924, indicated that in six months sixty- 
 three towns, villages and cities were represented, some as far away as sixty miles to the 
 west, seventy miles to the east and seventy-five miles to the north. The mode of travel is 
 on donkey-back, a-foot, in ox-carts and in Fords. 
 
 Former President Vicini said: "One of the things we need most is a school for nurses. 
 The poor people know nothing of how to care for themselves and even the rich do not 
 have the proper attention while they are sick. If you will give special attention to the 
 training of nurses it will not only benefit the people from the standpoint of health but 
 it will create a new occupation. Our young women would thus find a way to earn their 
 living as well as contribute to the development of their people.’’ 
 
 A Commission, composed largely of educational specialists, not technically interested in 
 the medical work itself, visiting Santo Domingo, returned unanimously urging that to 
 answer the overwhelming demands for the enlargement of the medical work was the 
 most important service that could be rendered to the Dominican Republic now, in spite 
 of other very apparent needs. 
 
 The opinion of all important authorities consulted was that the medical work must be 
 pushed rapidly and should be along the lines now conducted: Hospital, public clinics, 
 including baby welfare work, visiting nurse service and nurses’ training, and education 
 along the lines of hygiene and public health. 
 
 Student nurses of the International Hospital giving service to their people. 
 
Modem Christian 
 
 United Program 
 
 //N the past tourists have avoided Santo Domingo and churches and philanthropic 
 // agencies have overlooked it. In 1919, at the request of the Committee on Coopera- 
 / tion in Latin America, a body representative of thirty Protestant mission boards carry¬ 
 ing on -work in Latin America, its Executive Secretary, Mr. Samuel G. Inman, visited 
 the island. His report and survey made the neglect of Santo Domingo so clear that it 
 was decided to organize an interdenominational agency to administer the unique pro¬ 
 gram of service adopted. 
 
 This united service is different from any other missionary program in the world. Its 
 four-fold aspects arc evangelistic, medical, educational and social. Four denominational 
 boards joined in this BOARD FOR CHRISTIAN WORK IN SANTO DOMINGO. 
 
 All departments of the work have met with remarkable success. The evangelistic work 
 has been carried on first by Porto Rican pastors, and in its new branches by the young 
 Dominican pastors, trained under the auspices of the Board. Recently the Sunday school 
 in Santo Domingo City had an attendance of 1000, so startling an achievement as to 
 cause much local newspaper comment. A bookstore is conducted serving the profes¬ 
 sional and student classes; a reading-room is provided and contacts are made through 
 the distribution of good books. 
 
 An earnest effort has been made from the beginning to develop self-supporting churches. 
 Progress along this line has been most encouraging. Practically all of the congregations 
 are paying the bulk of their local expenses and some are also paying a portion of their 
 pastors’ salaries. 
 
Board of Trustees 
 
 of the 
 
 Board for Christian Work in Santo Domingo 
 
 OFFICERS 
 
 Mrs. Fred S. Bennett, President 
 Samuel Guy Inman, Secretary 
 Whitford L. McDowell, Treasurer 
 
 Mrs. Lillian L. Antrim 
 Henry Sloane Coffin 
 I. Moyer Hershey 
 E. Raymond Hildreth, M.D. 
 Edward D. Kohlstedt 
 Mrs. Walter C. Lotte 
 Mrs. Roswell Miller 
 Edward A. Odell 
 John T. Vance 
 Miss Edna R. Voss 
 Mrs. Samuel S. Williams 
 Mrs. May L. Woodruff 
 Samuel G. Ziegler 
 
 Office of Secretary 419 Fourth Avenue, New York City 
 
4 
 
Activities of the 
 
 BOARD FOR CHRISTIAN WORK IN SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 are carried on at 
 
 Santo Domingo, San Pedro De Macoris, La Romana, Hato Mayor, San Cristobal, 
 
 Barahona, Bani, and La Cumbre 
 
I