handling the work in a thoroughgoing up-to-date way and with an enthusiasm and patriotism that is assuring. If other countries of tropical America can furnish as good young men and as large a percentage of them as Porto Rico can, there will be an abundance of able and earnest young men to be trained.

7. I believe it is generally agreed that the people of Latin America and the people of the United States fail in large measure to understand each other and therefore to cooperate in their efforts for advancement. This is easily understood when one realizes that they are of very different temperament and have different languages, cultures, and religions. Porto Rico on the other hand is bilingual and has gone far toward blending both types of culture. They understand and can work with both the people of the States and the people of tropical America. A graduate school of tropical agriculture in Porto Rico will make another step toward a Pan-American university in a place of mutual sympathy. Such a university, in turn, will do much to further an understanding between the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

8. Porto Rico grows most of the important tropical crops on a commercial scale. Here may be mentioned sugar cane, tobacco, many sorts of tropical fruits, coffee, and long staple cotton. Her climate and soil are adapted to grow other tropical crops, such as rubber and cacao, that she does not grow now. These could be grown there at least on an experimental scale. While the temperature shows only a moderate variation between the coast and the mountains this temperature difference is sufficient to determine distribution limits for tropical crops.

There is a great range in rainfall between some of the highest rainfall regions of the wet northern coast and the most arid regions of the dry southern coast. There is also a considerable variety of soil types. Hence as regards variety of crops, soil, and climate, Porto Rico is a suitable location for such a school.

IV. BEST LOCATION IN PORTO RICO FOR SUCH A SCHOOL

Careful attention was given to the best region of Porto Rico in which to locate such a school. It seems logical that it should be near San Juan and as close as possible to the University of Porto Rico which would also bring it reasonably near the tropical graduate School of Medicine. No doubt the big thing to keep in mind is a Pan-American University. The natural nucleus for such a university is the University of Porto Rico with the Graduate School of Medicine, the projected School of Commerce and a Graduate School of Agriculture.

V. ORGANIZATION, FINANCING, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL

The Graduate School of Tropical Medicine under the joint management of Columbia University and the University of Porto Rico is doing much good research on tropical diseases. It is getting together the excellent talent of both institutions as well as much other talent interested in tropical diseases.

The University of Porto Rico furnished the building and is contributing much toward the support of the school while Columbia University contributes the rest. I had official assurance that the Porto Rican Government through the University of Porto Rico, stands ready to supply necessary land and to construct a building equivalent to the excellent building for the Tropical School of Medicine and to aid in the current expenses of running such a school. The island has limited wealth and is, therefore, not able to carry the main burden of operating the school. The university in the States that is to cooperate in the project should carry the greater part of the current expenses. The ideal situation would be adequate endowment for this purpose.

Commissioner Chardon advised that responsible government officials of the Dominican Republic have expressed interest in such a school and a desire to support a professorship in it. Colombia and other South American countries have expressed interest also. No doubt financial as well as educational participation may be expected from these countries.

VI. PROBABLE SOURCE OF STUDENTS FOR THE SCHOOL

As the populations of the various countries of the world increase, the Tropics must produce a larger and larger proportion of the necessary food, fiber, lumber, etc., needed by such populations. The great future in agriculture lies in developing these almost untouched resources of the Tropics. In the last few years marked developments have taken place in this direction and the demand for

trained men for tropical agriculture has been increasing rapidly with every prospect of greatly increasing demands for a long time in the future.

In the past trained agriculturalists have been taken from universities of the North Temperate Zone. While they had good fundamental training, they lacked contacts and experience. Such a graduate school would give these men a chance to get tropical contacts by taking a year or two of their graduate work in a tropical school. In the past two decades a number of students of agriculture from the Tropics have come to northern universities for their fundamental training in agriculture. While they had tropical contacts, their training mainly dealt with Temperate Zone problems, and in that degree failed to meet their needs. A graduate school of agriculture in the Tropics would be much better suited for training these men, especially if it were combined with a year or two of graduate training in northern universities.

Probably Porto Rico has sent more agricultural students to the States than all other tropical American countries combined. A school in the Tropics will draw many students from other tropical American countries. The affiliation of this school with a good American university will bring these students in contact with big American schools. The outcome will be much greater efficiency in agricultural production in the Tropics to supply our ever increasing needs. A second but no less important outcome will be a better understanding between the people of North and South America, with a recognition of their interdependence and community of interests.

VII. CONCLUSION

Considering all the points mentioned in this report, I believe the conclusion is entirely justified that Porto Rico is the logical place for a graduate school of tropical agriculture.

Mr. CHARDON. That this opening up of tropical America in agriculture is becoming very important at this moment is proven by the fact that the Pan American Union has now created a new activity called the division of agricultural cooperation, and an Inter-American conference on agriculture, animal husbandry, and forestry will be held here in Washington next September in order to coordinate all of the agricultural work of Latin America.

Now, this is of importance to the United States when you consider what has been going on in the past, mostly through the lack of a concerted effort of research. You know that rubber is an indigenous plant to the American tropics. Most of the rubber 20 or 30 years ago came from the Amazon Valley. You know that the most important producing cacao country in the world was Ecuador-just 10 years ago the Republic of Ecuador. Now the main production of cacao has shifted to Africa in the British colony of the Gold Coast. Why? Due to the appearance of a very destructive disease of cacao called the witches' broom disease, which has cut down the production of cacao to one-third of what it was. That is, research and knowledge of the combating of that disease was lacking.

You know that cinchona, the bark of which produces quinine, is also a plant indigenous to America. It is indigenous to the Central Andes in South America. Colombia and Ecuador used to produce all the quinine in the world, 20 or 30 years ago, and now all of the quinine and the cinchona bark in the world is produced by the Dutch in Java. So actually the British and Dutch, which have, of course, been the leading colonizing nations, are getting hold and getting control of most of the vitally important products for this consuming public here in America, and we will have to make a very concerted effort to regain back those products; and this, of course, has been in the mind of the National Research Council when they have been

endeavoring to establish somewhere in the American tropics an institute of higher learning and research for tropical crops.

Now, these advances which have been made by Porto Rico in cane problems are just an illustration. We have gradually become the leaders in agricultural research in the Tropics, in the American Tropics; and here I have in these envelopes the plans for the development of scientific agriculture, especially research in the Republic of Colombia in South America. We have been in close contact for the last four years with the Republic of Colombia, and they are now interested in a research program covering a period of four or five years, and they are willing to spend the amount of $2,000,000 for agricultural research. Now, that is a reflex on what has been going on in Porto Rico, and when you consider that that which has been attained has been done through our own efforts and through our own initiative and with our own money, what would be the results in the future if such a bill as this be approved; and we can bring together not only the Insular institutions, but also the Federal institutions, and the college of agriculture, together with these additional funds, will be in a very safe position to assume that Porto Rico will become, perhaps, almost surely the center of agricultural research in the American Tropics.

Mr. ADKINS. Will you yield right there?

Mr. CHARDON. Surely, sir.

Mr. ADKINS. Are you a native of the island?

Mr. CHARDON. Yes, sir.

Mr. ADKINS. How old are you?

Mr. CHARDON. Thirty-two years.

Mr. ADKINS. Have you been engaged in these research activities? Mr. CHARDON. Well, I am supposed to be a research man and a graduate from Cornell University. I was originally a research man until I came to the Government. I have so many things to do now; I am the Secretary of Agriculture of the Porto Rico Government. Mr. ADKINS. What I was getting at is the value of your statement. You have been identified with that class of work?

Mr. CHARDON. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Entirely with that.

Mr. ADKINS. You made a very important statement there which comes from a man who has made a study of it, and that makes it a much more valuable statement for consideration of the committee. That is the reason I asked this rather personal question.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I would like to add to that a statement by saying that the people in continental America who are most concerned with this problem consider Doctor Chardon as perhaps the leading expert on it.

Mr. ADKINS. That is what I wanted to get into the record, as to what his experience has been and what the value of his statement would be.

Mr. KETCHAM. All the emphasis thus far has been put upon the development of a new agriculture in Porto Rico, which is thoroughly desirable. I do not recall that anything has been said on the other side, which, of course, goes along with it, namely, that if we do develop that sort of civilization down there, and we do make these farmers self-sufficient and naturally more progressive, desiring more and better things, on top of that having the means whereby they can get

them, there is a very important consideration for our people on the reverse side of the proposal. You have been talking all the while about Porto Rico producing and selling. It occurs to me that if they develop their civilization they become buyers. There is a very important consideration from our side of looking toward the development of our own commercial relations with the island.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Congressman, might I add right there what I have said to a great many people who have been coming to me and talking about the introduction of certain continental commodities and so forth into Porto Rico? I say, "Fine;" but in order to get those commodities, we have got to have the money to pay for them, and when we have the money to pay for them, unless we get this system going

Mr. KETCHAM. This all goes back to the fundamental question which I tried to bring out a little while ago. There is the fundamental desire for these things, and they want them and all that, but they lack the wherewithal to get them?

Mr. ROOSEVELT. They say, "No hay dinero"-we haven't got the money. That comes over and over again down there, sir. We have not got the money.

Mr. CHARDON. Mr. Chairman, just one more thing there. I have been through many countries of Latin America myself advising some of the governments down there. Of course, I am a Latin-American myself and I understand very well what they think and what is their attitude to the United States, and I may say this: That an approach from the part of the United States to Latin America on the strict basis of this kind of service, shifting away from the diplomatic channels without any special interest of exploiting unduly South America, will mean, perhaps, more for the betterment of international relations than any other channel that I can possibly think of; and simply what I would like to say to Congress is to ask them to help us in this very important crusade which we are planning not only for the benefit of the Latin America and not only for the benefit of Porto Rico, but also equally for the benefit of the United States. And the approval of this bill will be very fundamental, because this will bring together all the agencies which we have in the island, both the Federal and the insular agencies, and the college of agriculture in the hope of having in future years perhaps the most important research center in the American tropics.

Mr. JONES. Do you think our program should be extended so it would be beneficial to the entire Latin America?

Mr. CHARDON. I have no doubt in saying that. Yes, sir. That is rather a broad statement. It is very important. We are going to depend more and more on the Latin Americans in the future.

Mr. JONES. You profit some other countries not connected with the United States with anything you do in Porto Rico.

Mr. CHARDON. But the more you develop the resources of Latin America, the more their buying power and the more thay will buy here. It will surely react that way. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you through with your statement?
Mr. ROOSEVELT. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. We are very grateful to you gentlemen. We would like to hear from the department.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The department is entirely in accord with what we said.

The CHAIRMAN. We might have them go into detail. There is no one here from the department?

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Ño, but the bill has the approval of the department and was drawn at the department.

The CHAIRMAN. Has it been submitted to the Budget?

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I think it has.

Mr. CHARDON. It has not been submitted so far as I know.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. But it was drawn in the department.

The CHAIRMAN. I suggest we call upon the department, as is customary. My understanding is the department would submit it to the Budget to give its opinion.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. That is probably the reason why the department did not come down; it probably had to go through the Budget. In view of the short time we would be here, we asked for the courtesy of a hearing by the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. We have been very glad to have you.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I want to thank you, sir, and the committee, for giving us the courtesy of this hearing.

(Whereupon, at 12 o'clock noon, the committee adjourned.)