Cuba Today Is Vastly Changed
From Days of Columbus Visit
CUBAN WOMEN have been organized into a reserve army
to aid and supplement the island’s regular military unit. Pictured
here are a number of volunteers to the corps as they are lined
up for inspection by their commanding officer, Col. Fulgencio
Batista.
Havana, Capital City, Is
Now a Modern
Seaport.
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
As the skyline of Havana
rises from the deep blue
waters of the Gulf of Mexico
and takes form, one wonders
of the thrill that Columbus
must have felt on that memo
rable October 27, 1492, when
first his tired eyes beheld the
virgin shores of the island,
and his mind quickened at
the vision of gold and other
precious metals he hoped this
fair territory would yield to
the coffers of Spain.
What would be his feeling now
were he to approach the Cuban cap
ital and see the golden dome of the
new Capitol building glittering in the
HERE IS COL. Fulgencio
Batista, dictator of Cuba, who
rose from a lowly ranking army
officer to become Number One
man of the republic. Last year
on a trip to the United States
Batista was given a royal recep
tion by the federal government.
sunlight? Landing, he would feel in
creased awe at the size and the
splendor of this building, which
would eclipse anything known to
him.
Then someone might whisper in
his ear that $17,000,000 had been
spent in its construction, and that,
set in the floor beneath its golden
dome, is a 24-carat diamond!
From that diamond Cuban dis
tances are measured; it is a glisten
ing marker corresponding to the
Zero Milestone south of the White
House in Washington.
Weather-Beaten Harbor.
Grim and weather-beaten, Morro
Castle since 1597 has stood guard
over the bottle-necked harbor of Ha
vana. As one’s ship slips softly
through the narrow channel, the
massive walls and tower of the fort
ress rise sheer to the left, while to
the right the shore seems so close
that one could almost shake hands
with the people on the sea wall.
No doubt many visitors have had
several years of Spanish at school,
but the chances are that they will
not understand the rapid-fire chat
ter of boatmen, porters, and chauf
feurs. It sounds so different. Much
of it is different, just as everyday
English is far from the correct and
precise language of the classroom.
Venturing into the older sections
of Havana, a visitor finds narrow
streets and tiny sidewalks not more
than 18 inches wide. The pedestrian
on them brushes against people
standing in the doorways or win
dows. Here it is customary to walk
in the street, using the sidewalk
only as a safety zone to let some
vehicle pass as you flatten yourself
apprehensively against the wall.
In this area, too, both homes and
shops are built flush to the side
walks. They have massive wooden
doors with huge metal knockers,
many of them shaped like a hand,
an oddly coiled serpent, or a gar
goyle with a ball in its mouth, with
which you may set up a resounding
demand for admittance.
Iron Bars on Windows.
The windows are in nearly every
case enclosed with iron bars, those
of the more pretentious residences
having fancy scroll patterns. Most
of them have a hinged section at a
convenient height, which may be
opened when desired, so that one
may lean out and see what is going
on farther down the street. To us,
this custom may seem strange, ex
cept for jails or banks, yet it pro
vides ventilation without the danger
of intruders.
Cuban stores are blessed with an
infinite variety of names—the small
er the establishment the more pon
derous the name. As a rule the
name selected has no bearing on
the nature of the business conduct
ed, as in the case of a small laundry
bearing the royal designation of “Al
fonso XII”; a tailor shop entitled
"Nueva Retreta” (New Retreat);
“El Canonazo” (The Cannon Shot),
a photograph and furniture store;
or "Flor de Oriente” (Flower of the
Orient), a butcher shop!
The ground floor of many houses
is often set back some distance and
the second story, called the "first
floor,” is built out over the side
walk, thus forming a broad arcade
with heavy, supporting columns of
masonry rising from the curb.
The rooms of an older house are
huge, the ceilings high—often 15 to
18 feet high—and the floors usually
of marble or tile. Between the
rooms are ornamental doors, the up
per part mostly of colored or frosted
glass to make them opaque. Air
can circulate freely over them as
they do not reach the lintel. This
gives some ventilation, for general
ly at night all outside doors and
windows are closed to keep out the
night air, which, according to leg
end, is thought to be injurious!
There are no built-in closets, and
the walls are of painted plaster,
“REMEMBER THE MAINEn?
This monument in Havana is
Cuba's tray of remembering the
260 American sailors uho lost
their lives when the battleship
Maine exploded in Havana har
bor on February 15th, 1898. The
event teas considered a contribu
tory factor to the Spanish-Amer
ican war and on each anniver’
sary of the historic event, Cuba
pays homage to the victims.
without benefit of wallpaper. The
furniture in fte parlor usually con
sists of a center table with much
bric-a-brac, while along the walls
are two rows of chairs facing each
other, placed with military preci
sion.
I_
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Reviewed by
CARTER FIELD
New Deal insiders about
face on Paul V. McNutt...
Fleet of destroyers helpless
against pocket battleship,
as explained by experts . . .
How idea of transferring
U. S. ships to the Irish flag
originated.
WASHINGTON.—It may not mean
a thing, but it is mighty curious
how all the inside New Dealers have
suddenly taken Paul V. McNutt to
their bosoms. It was only a few
months back that they were denounc
ing him as a Fascist, to put it mild
ly. They were bitter, of course,
about what they considered his re
actionary attitude toward labor
when he was governor of Indiana.
Why such a man should be singled
out by the “Chief" and made high
commissioner of the Philippines,
they simply could not understand.
At about this time McNutt was a
guest—during a visit to Washington
from the Philippines—at a stag din
ner at which President Roosevelt
was also a guest. A little skit was
put on, with McNutt the target. The
President was urged, in advance,
to pull a certain line when the char
acter depicting McNutt should con
clude his bombast. The original sug
gestion came from a man very close
to the New Deal. The committee ar
ranging the skits for this dinner
thought it would be a wow. Not
only that, but they were sure the
President would take malicious
pleasure in taking a part in the en
tertainment which would be humili
ating to McNutt.
Much to their susprise, the Presi
dent merely smiled at the sugges
tion, and the skit had to be played
without including the Chief Execu
tive as one of its actors.
Bear in mnd that this dates back
to when McNutt was still in the
Philippines, though very much a
candidate for the presidency. New
Dealers all over town were interest
ed in the story, but they all agreed
that it would be beneath the Presi
dent’s dignity to take part in such a
slapstick comedy.
Refused to Take Part in
Skit That Belittled McNutt
The point is that anyone who has
seen Roosevelt, either in Albany or
Washington, at parties of this sort
knows perfectly well that he thor
oughly enjoys that particular sort of
slapstick.
He openly enjoys taking part In
the original skit, if there is some
point to his doing so. And he finds
plenty of things to kid his lieuten
ants about without seeking outside
help.
But he refused to take part in a
skit which would have belittled the
Hoosier who was so obviously gun
ning for Roosevelt’s job!
It took the New Dealers u long
time to get on to this policy of the
President towards McNutt. Even
after he was brought into the pres
ent administration setup there was
considerable wailing from the left
wingers. Some of them privately
opined that perhaps the “Chief” was
purposely assigning McNutt a task
which would be so big that he would
rattle around in it—rattle so obvi
ously that he would destroy himself
in the eyes of the country as a con
tender for a still bigger job.
Of course there is nothing to prove
that this last theory is impossible.
So far McNutt is not rattling. He
may never rattle. The job may
make him instead of killing him off.
But perhaps that is what Roosevelt
has been intending ever since long
before he declined to help make a
laughing stock of the Hoosier at
this dinner party.
Whatever may be the truth the
New Dealers seem to have con
cluded that McNutt is the fair-haired
boy. Certainly the oil sprayers and
grease guns have gone to work. It
is just a little like the about-face
some of our Communist friends in
this country executed after the Hit
ler-Stalin pact.
Destroyers Are Helpless
Against Pocket Battleship
Few laymen understand the diffi
culties which confront the British
and French navies in running down
the Nazi pocket battleships. Nearly
everyone now knows that there are
only about three ships in the whole
British navy—the battle cruisers—
which are capable both of overhaul
ing the pocket battleships and then
sinking them. Incidentally the Unit
ed States navy has neither the pock
et battleship nor the battle cruis
er—has none under construction—
and unless developments should
shake the present determination of
the admirals our navy has no inten
tion of ever building them.
But what the layman does not ap
preciate is the difficulty of hunting
down a pocket battleship with num
bers rather than with power. In
arguments about the situation, for
) example some layman will demand
| to know why a squadron of destroy
ers does not go after each of the
pocket battleships reported to be
preying on our commerce, and
| hound it to death like a pack of
1 wolves might destroy a bear.
Two or three of the wolves might
be killed, the layman will say, but
the pack would kill the bear. Or,
translating the simile, two or five of
' the destroyers, it the pursuing craft
are destroyers, might be sunk, but
the squadron would get the pocket
battleship.
It is by no means as simple as
that Naval experts say that the
only function destroyers could play
in such a chase would be as scouts.
The only thing they could do would
be to locate the pocket battleship,
and keep contact with her, so to
speak, until a battle cruiser could
come up for the kill.
Present-Day Gunfire
Is Amazingly Accurate
What the layman does not appre
ciate in his theory about a whole
squadron of destroyers attacking a
pocket battleship is the amazing ac
curacy of present-day gunfire even
at tremendous ranges.
Of course the destroyers have
slightly greater speed than the pock
et battleships, and therefore could
determine the range at which the
action would be fought. But unless
they could come up fairly close un
der cover of fog without being de
tected they would all be sent to the
bottom before they got close enough
to fire a shot or dispatch a torpedo
with any hope of its finding its
mark.
For accuracy a submarine or tor
pedo boat must be very much closer
to its target than a big-gun ship. For
example, the face of a chief gunnery
officer of a battleship would be very
red indeed if he did not hit a target
as big as a destroyer on the third
salvo—at a distance of 20,000 yards
and with the battleship from which
he was firing proceeding at full
speed in a rolling sea!
Besides, the pocket battleships
carry airplanes, which are not only
useful for scouting the surrounding
ocean, but can be used with amaz
ing precision, by triangulation, for
aiming the heavy guns of the ship
when the target is over the horizon.
It would be suicide to send a
whole fleet of smaller craft against
a pocket battleship except on the
long chance that, in fog or mist, they
might get close enough to loose a
school of torpedoes.
Proposal to Transfer
U. S. Ships to Irish Flag
One of the most amazing inter
national moves in all history, so far
as its inception is concerned, wheth
er it ever works out or not, is the
proposal to transfer ships now fly
ing the United States flag to Ireland
instead of Panama.
Actually, it amounted to a straight
tip from the President of the United
States to the Irish republic and to in
ternational shipping men that while
the United States government would
no longer countenance any transfer
of United States ships to the flag of
Panama, or any other American re
public, the same objections would
not lie against tHfeir transfer to the
Irish flag!
Had the scheme been thought out
in advance, and the tip then dis
creetly conveyed, it would be mere
ly a clever device. It was the way
the idea developed that makes it
stand out.
Actually President Roosevelt was
answering questions of newspaper
men about the transfer of United
States flag ships to Panama. He had
added one argument which had not
been printed before—that to do this
would be to encourage one of the
American republics to take a posi
tion on neutrality divergent from
that taken by the United States.
With this subject disposed of, the
President was then asked about the
complaints of the Irish Free State
made through its minister in Wash
ington, against the Irish ports being
held to be in danger zones, and
hence forbidden to ships flying the
American flag.
The President expressed his sym
pathy with Ireland, Belgium, Hol
land, Denmark (naming these indi
vidually) and others, but said that
unfortunately the question of wheth
er a particular part of the sea is a
danger zone is a question of fact,
not sympathy or desire.
Suggests That Irish Buy
Some Ships of Their Own
Finally, the President himself sug
gested that the Irish should have
some ships of their own! To the
immediate question of whether the
United States would be Interested in
a bid of the Irish for the ships that
cannot now be transferred to the flag
of Panama, the President indicated
that the government might be very
willing to sell. To the further ques
tion of whether the same objection
would apply to the transfer to the
Irish flag of ships flying the United
States flag which had applied to
their transfer to the Panama flag,
the President answered emphatical
ly in the negative.
That’s how the idea was born, the
President stating that he had heard
no suggestion of it, but would wel
come a proposal!
Most newspaper men at the con
ference were so intensely interested
in the bigger story that the transfer
of additional ships to Panama was
definitely off—this being the first
time that this was really settled—
and in the collateral and also tre
mendous story that Secretary Cor
dell Hull had again won a spectacu
lar victory (he has never lost a bat
tle since he became head of the
department of state) that very little
attention was paid to this remarka
ble Irsh story.
But politicians and diplomats alike
are speculating since they have been
told about it. The thing looks fool
proof. For instance, would the Nazis
dare to sink an Irish ship? If they
did, what would be the reactions
(a) of the Irish government and peo
ple, and. (b) of the Irish-Americans
in the United States?
(Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.)
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEW YORK.—When we went into
the World war, Sen. Smith W.
Brookhart of Iowa said our crack
riflemen would win for us if he were
allowed to re
Rifle Virtuoso cruitandtrain
Made Gun Our them. Ameri
ArmyMainstay cans’ heaaid’
* J were born
marksmen, and the rifle would be
suited to our native genius. He was
soundly patriotic and moving, as he
worked in Daniel Boone and individ
ual initiative, but his plea went un
heeded—in fact, the senator’s sug
gestion seemed amusing to most
commentators.
But, at that time, there was a
young fellow popping oft the con
veyor belt ducks at Coney is
land with such accuracy that he
became a virtuoso of rifle fire,
and, in between war years,
made the rifle the mainstay of
our army firing power, just as
Senator Brookhart said it ought
to be. The Garand self-loading,
semi-automatic rifle, tested by
National Guardsmen at Camp
Smith, Peekskill, has for several
years been put down by mili
tary men as the world’s most
sensational achievement in light
arms. The army took it over in
1937. It is the creation of John
C. Garand, the young toolmaker
whose earlier laboratory was a
Coney island shooting gallery.
It weighs only nine pounds, and
fires 60 shots to the minute—one
shot with one trigger-pull.
Young Garand made several mod
els, embodying his basic idea, and
sent one to the navy department
at Washington. They planted him
with the bureau of standards to
continue his experiments.
Later, they sent him to the
United States armory at Spring
field, where in 1923 he brought
through the deadliest small
weapon ever made. It has been
steadily improved since then,
and, according to the most au
thoritative military judgment,
has more than trebled our
army’s firing power. Automatic
in ail but the trigger-pull, muz
sle gas Is used to power it.
John C. Garand was born in a
French-Canadian village, 20 miles
from Montreal, and was brought to
Putnam, Conn., by his father, when
he was seven, after the death of his
mother. He was the seventh of 14
children. He was a textile mill ma
chinist at 18. In 1930, he married a
Canadian girl. They have a boy
and a girl. He is 52 years old. still
a gunsmith at the Springfield ar
mory.
THERE was once a hillbilly girl
who went to a neighbor’s cabin
to borrow a hammer. She said,
“Pappy’s flxin’ to build a house next
fall.” Over in
Europe Borrows Europe, they
Our *World of are “flxin’ ”
r i |i to build a
Tomorrow Idea federated Eu.
rope, forehanded about it, as above,
with the building apparently depend
ent on a preliminary wrecking job.
Within the last few days, plans
for the grand remodeling have
gone forward, with two sets of
blueprints on each side of the
west wall. Franz von Papen
thinks the new commonwealth of
Europe will be devised by Ger
many, while Paul Reynaud,
French minister of finance, and
his confreres in London, are
making other arrangements.
The wide range of planners
swings from intellectuals, such
as Julian Huxley, the British
scientist, to the man of action,
General Wladislas Sikorski, pre
mier of the Polish government
which is Just now camping out
in France.
General Sikorski, the latest ma
triculate in the peace seminar, vi
sions a "consolidated Europe," but
one in which a reconstituted Poland
will somehow be happily encysted.
He is a soldier who became a
writing, as well as a fighting
man, also, with his gift of ready
speech, an orator and politician.
He was an effective leader of the
war of 1920, when the French
general, Maxime Weygand,
helped the Poles stop the Bol
sheviks, and he became premier
in 1922 when he was replaced by
Marshal Pilsudski as chlef-of
staff. He was forced out in 1923,
and in 1924 became minister of
war. One of his first official acts
was to forbid women workers
in the department to wear silk
stockings. He decreed dark,
high-collared dresses, high
shoes and cotton stockings. He
Is a strict disciplinarian.
A handsome and romantic figure
of the old feudal Polish aristocracy,
he took full account of modern con
ditions as he tried desperately to
tool his country into modern state
hood. Now, it appears, he would
just skip it and take a chance on
the world.of tomorrow.
(Consolidated Features—WNU Service.)
I ASK ME O A Quiz With Answers I
_ _ _ _ ____ _ y Offering Information
ANOTH E R I on Various Subjects
The Questions
1. What part of the world’s popu
lation does the Southern hemi
sphere contain?
2. Is there a federal or state law
for the punishment of a stowaway
discovered on an ocean vessel?
3. Which is the longest verse of
the Bible? The shortest?
4. What is the name of the geo
logical period in which we live?
5. Will all kinds of oil float on
water?
w — ■■ *
The Answers
1. The Southern Hemisphere con
tains but 5 per cent of the world’s
population.
2. No.
3. Longest—Esther 8:9; short
est—St. John 11:35.
4. The Holocene. It extends
from about 20000 B. C. to the
present time.
5. Several kinds will not, among
them are sassafras and winter
green.
_ . _ _ i
1_
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Smith Bros. Cough Drops are the l
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IfMARK
Royal Act
’Tis a kingly action, believe me,
to assist the fallen.—Ovid.
Hope a Pillar
Hope is the pillar that upholds
the world.—Pliny.
R. I. Smith (toft) says to N. A. Harding (center)
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