The Year of the Great Hurricane (1928-29) by Thomas E. Benner, Chancellor of UPR

THOMAS E. BENNER

FIVE YEARS

OF FOUNDATION BUILDING THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO 1924 - 1929

Prefaced by Chancellor Jaime Benítez

UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO

RIO PIEDRAS, PUERTO RICO 1965

/

Dr. Thomas E. Benner, Chancellar of the University of Puerto Rico, 1924 to 1929.

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- II

Copyright, 1965

© University o£ Puerto Rico

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To Hester^ Borinquen and Tomasito

BIBLIOTECA U. P. R. FEB 19 1965

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page XIII

Preíace by Chancellor Jaime Benítez 1

Introduction

The Earlier Years

Chapter I

Appointment of a Chancellor

Chapter II

The First Year o£ the New Administration

Chapter III

The School o£ Tropical Medicine

Chapter IV

The Second Year (1925-26)

Chapter V

The New University Emerges (1926-27)

Chapter VI

A Report o£ Progresa

7

15

35

43

67

81 ^

Chapter VII The Department o£ Spanish Studies Chapter VIII The 25th Anniversary (1927-28)

89

99

Chapter IX The Year o£ the Great Hurricane (1928-29) .... US Chapter X

The End o£ an Administration

133

148

Biographical Sketch 149 Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece

Chancellor Thomas E. Benner, 1924-29 Following page 16: Normal building, 1902

Graduating class, 1907

Plan o£ Mayagüez campus, 1915

Mayagüez R. O. T. C. and building, 1924 Río Piedras faculty, 1924 Parsons plan, 1925 Evolution of facade o£ Río Piedras buildings: Architect's sketch, 1926

Panoramic photograph, 1928 Architect's sketch, with tower, 1936

School o£ Tropical Medicine: Faculty members, 1926 Building, 1926

Following page 80: Carlota Matienzo dormitory, architect's drawing Carlota Matienzo dormitory, patio Dedication o£ Ra£ael Fabián glorieta, 1928

Alma glee club, 1929 Professors o£ Spanish studies: De Onís and de los Ríos

Navarro and Miss Holt, with Pedreira and others

1926 debating teams 1928 debating team 1929 debating teams

Following page 112:

Declication of new Muñoz Rivera monument, 1928: Senator Barceló presents monument Some of the participants

Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh visits University, 1928 Students await arrival of Lindbergh

Governor entertains 25th anniversary delegates, 1928 Hurricane of San Felipe, 1928: Headlines from New York Times Salvaging books

Damage to Baldorioty building Map of hurricane path Río Piedras degree graduales, 1929

Mayagüez degree graduales, 1929 Following page 144:

Proiesl of a disiinguished lady

Wooden bell lower of ihe early days Mayagüez view in 1961 Río Piedras view in 1962

Chapter IX

THE YEAR OF THE GREAT HURRICANE (1928-29) The academic year 1928-29 was just getting well under way when, on September 13, the hurricane oÂŁ San Felipe ravaged the island.

Relief Director Henry M. Baker of the American Red Cross reported, two months later, that San Felipe "was a more serious disaster, from the administrative point of view, than the Mississippi flood or any other disaster since the European war".

Seventeen days after the storm the official report of the Puerto

Rican pĂłlice announced that 271 bodies of hurricane victims had been recovered. A report from Ciales at about the same time stated that the people of the rural areas were still without food or shelter, living in the open air, cold at night, hungry and many of them sick.

On September 18 the Assistant Commissioner of Education, Fran cisco Vizcarrondo announced that fifty per cent of the rural schools of Puerto Rico had been destroyed and that the remaining fifty per cent had been badly damaged. In the urban areas, 240 school buildings had been razed and 473 unroofed. Many of the surviving buildings were being used as hospitals and shelters for the homeless.

The telephone company, which had been aided by extra crews

of experienced linemen rushed by steamship from the North, an nounced on December 21, more than three months after the storm,

that sixty per cent of the islands' telephones were in service again.

On the following day, the Red Cross reported that it was contributing ten million young coffee trees with which to replant the

devastated coffee plantations and had appropriated |500,000 to employ .

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18,000 rural laborers at one dollar per day to clean up the fallen trees on the plantations and make ready for replanting. The Red Cross announced aiso that it was providing one million dollars worth o£ construction materials for re-building destroyed houses. Five thousand families were thus helped to re-build their bornes.

Weather burean warnings, distributed by the Insular Pólice, had

reported the approach of this disastrous storm. It was then moving on a course which would somewhat by-pass Puerto Rico and reduce

the probable damage. During the night of September 12, however, the path of the hurricane suddenly changed, and in the early hours of the next day it swept into the Island, raking its entire length throughout the day and driving twenty inches of rain through the wind-damaged cities, villages and farms. The anemometer at the San Juan station of the Weather Burean registered winds up to 132 miles per hour well before the storm reached its máximum. At that point the wind tore it from its location.

Dr. Oliver Fassig, local head of the Weather Burean, had given an illustrated lecture on Caribbean hurricanes as the storm season

approached. He had pointed out that these monsters form in the southeastern Atlantic, have a destructive diameter of from fifty to seventy five miles or more, and move forward at a rate of from

fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour as they spin around a relatively quiet central core. Within this core the atmospheric pressure is much lower. Moving across the ocean, therefore, the higher surrounding

pressures forcé the water towards this center, so that along the coast the storm produces unusually high tides to increase the damage done by raging seas.

Telephone and power lines are early victims of such a storm, destroying communications, paralyzing pumping stations and reducing water and all other services. Fallen trees block the streets and highways. Each family is isolated as it struggles with its problems of survival.

Several Río Piedras faculty families lived in the termite-riddled [114]

The University of Puerto Rico — 1924-1929

wooclen buildings of the oĂ­d university farm. The Chancellor was fearful that these buildings would collapse before the wind and rain.

When the eye of the storm arrived, therefore, with its brief period of calm, he decided to attempt an inspection. The farm residences were a few hundred yards away on a farm road. He reached the

houses and was able to talk to the families through the doors and shutters across which they had nailed boards as extra protection.

In order to extend bis inspection to the Carlota Matienzo giris' dormitory it was necessary to turn with the wind at his back and

follow a little-used dirt road lined on both sides by coconut palms.

The eye of the storm had now passed and the trees, under the surging pressure of the wind, seemed likely to be up-rooted at any moment.

Running before the wind in order to get quickly out of this

danger area was like running with the seven-league boots of the children's story. The problem was to keep one's footing. At one point the heavy rain had produced a small torrent which crossed a low point of the road. Unable to stop because of the wind, the Chancellor

decided to leap across as much of the flood as he could. The wind was so strong that he cleared the water completely and landed on the other side.

The occupants of the girls' dormitory answered his shouts with assurances that they were safe. Now it was necessary to move across

the wind for about two hundred yards. He found upside down in

a clump of bamboos the complete roof of one of a pair of temporary classroom buildings which had been built behind the administration building and stopped to fasten an open shutter and a door of the other. Moving against the wind around the side of this second build

ing he became aware that half of its roof was gone so that an open shutter or door was a matter of little importance.

The last hundred yards to the Chancellor's residence were a

struggle directly against the wind. At one point it was necessary to cross a small, water-filled ditch not more than three feet wide. It

became necessary to drop to his hands and knees and crawl through [115]

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the ditch since he could not, because of the wind pressure, either jump or step across it.

Safely back in the residence the Chancellor found that during bis short absence bis infant son, Thomas Eliot Benner, Jr., born a month earlier, had stopped breathing during the eye of the storm.

Without telephone service it had been impossible for Mrs. Benner to consult a doctor, but massage, artificial respiration and a warm

bath heated, in the absence of electricity, over cans of solid alcohol had served to revive him.

During the late afternoon and evening of the 13th the hurricane slowly moved out of the island. The damaging winds and rain were over. It was clear that there must be thousands in need of medical care, food and shelter. Accordingly, at earliest light on the next

morning, the Chancellor drove to San Juan, frequently detouring around fallen trees, posts, wires and other debris, to report to whatever authority might have been established to deal with the disaster.

Finding all government offices and agencies closed, he went next

to the cable offices to send messages of reassurance to relatives and friends. On learning that the lines were down which connected the cable office with the hut where the cables came ashore, he volunteered

the use of the car to carry sending and receiving equipment to the hut.

Communication was quickly restored and a series of inquiries from the metropolitan newspapers poured in. At the urging of the cable office representative the Chancellor sent the following message

to The New York Times where it appeared in a front page box on the following morning: San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sept. 14. Immediate aid of the

Red Cross and all other agencies is needecl. The hurricane damages are beyond estimation. All communications are paralyzed.

Thomas E. Benner

Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico.

When offices opened at nine o'dock, the Chancellor reported to the Governor and offered bis services and tbose of the university [116]

The University of Puerto Rico — 1924-1929

personnel for relief work o£ any kind which the government might wish to assigii. He was toid that it was too early to talk about relief activity until the full extent and nature of the disaster were known.

Returning to the University there were conferences with staff members and students. Because of unroofed buildings, water damage to the library, to equipment and to records there was much to be

done on the camjjus. Faculty members and other employees had already begun the work of salvage. Instruction was suspended until the end of the month to permit students to return to their homes where their help was likely to be needed.

In the meanwhile, Professor José C. Rosario had set out on foot

to determine what had happened to the rural population in the hills within a radius of seven miles from San Juan. He reported that most families were without food, shelter or money with which to

buy what they urgently needed. This was reported to the governor's office. A front page headline in The New York Times stated on the following day: Fear of famine arises

Food will soon give out unless aid is rushed, says university head.

Medical supplies, food and shelter are needed at once.

Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings José Font Carbonell

began at once the major work of restoring Río Piedras buildings and grounds. Three days after the storm he presented a report sum-

marizing the Río Piedras damages from which the following excerpts are taken:

Matienzo Dormitorio had one window broken in by the wind, the water entering in a flood wetting and staining the walls, mattresses and clothing. Otherwise no serious damage was noted.

Normal Building — The roof — eastern and northern

half — was stripped of its metal covering (blown off), and the air chamber beneath was thus opened to the wind and rain. On the upper floor rooms G and D (towards the east [117]

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and north) suffered extensively; all the windows were loosened and admitted water; one window especially, towards

the east opening into the instructors' office, was completely blown in, smashing desks and cases practically beyond repair... The walls seem saturated and the floors are be-

ginning to buckie... The main floor is less injured but is

in a serious condition... The building is in a j^oor condi-

tion everywhere; floors, beams and frames have been invaded by polillas and much is rotted.

Baldorioty. The auditorium was ¡jartially unroofed, walls and floors water-soaked, the furniture and piano being damaged. The covered passage way to the main building

was damaged. The roof of the main building was partially torn off, the metal sheets having been blown about the grounds; water entered generally. The upper story, northeast

wing (kitchen department) seems not seriously injured.

Southwest wing (chemical and biological laboratories) are

water soaked, and damage cannot yet be estimated, but it must be severe. The corridor connecting these wings was

wrecked by destruction of the wood grill work. The Chancellor's office was water soaked and some records rendered

illegible. Injurious effect of water is evident everywhere.

On the ground floor the room of the Deán of Administration escaped damage, and only a little water entered the post office and adjacent rooms; but across the open main passage way,

which was soaked, the Registrar's office was thoroughly wetted, store-room and stationary department was so watered that books, etc. had to be carried out, with the hope that some material might be salvaged...

Janer. Being new, no serious injury is to be recorded.. ■ The Chancellor's house roof on house and garage was torn. Water entering into the patio caused noticeable dam

age, but the main building was uninjured. The house of the Deán of Administration escaped, but the roofs on the garage and wash shed (laundry) were loosened.

At the farm. . . the crazy woman's house was unroofed and its east side blown in... In the group cottages the apartment occupied by Donaldson, Dr. Kuschke, Mr. Milis

was unroofed, the balconies wrecked and so complete was the saturation by the entering water that the occupants were compelled to take shelter under Mr. Rosario's roof. Mr.

Ramírez's apartment was partially unroofed and a heavy tree

crushed in part of the balcony and upper story; the entering water injured his valuable library...

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ThE UiN'lVERSlTV OF PUERTO RlCO — 1924-1929

The road to the farm was almost at once blocked by

fallen trees (removed by oxen as soon as possible after the disaster.)

Campos is strewn with debris — zinc sheets, tar strips, timbers, whole trees and broken branches. The bamboo and

other tree clumps are practically obliterated; foliage in gen eral is to a large extent destroyed. ...The shed for agricultural tools was roofless and par-

tially wrecked. The carpenter shop had lost its roof, tools and material were completely wet, and the east end was blown down. The military shop had its roof aushed by a fallen tree, and water entered so that much damage was done to equipment and supplies. The grandstand of the athletic field, so far as the wood structure was concerned, had col-

lapsed.

Roads. The semi-circular approach is well preserved, but other roads are injured, in some cases washed down to the solid foundation. Many fences are down, trees uprooted,

telephone poles with wires, advice posts with signs are blown down... The boarcl walks were blown out of place, the steel flagstaff was bent to right angle, the tennis and other courts were wrecked.

Lt. William W. Robertson of the University R. O. T. C., an engineer officer, volunteered to assist Mr. Font in the work of reconstruction.

When commimications had been restored, it was learned that

at Mayagüez wooden buildings had been heavily damaged but that losses in the permanent buildings were smaller. Restoration was already under way. It had been possible to resume instruction with only a day or two of interruption.

The hurricane occurred on Thursday. On Sunday the Chancellor, who had reported to the Governor's office daily, gave to Governor

H. M. Towner a letter summarizing the emergency situation, based on first hand reports by faculty members and others who had visited

and observed the post-hurricane problems of the villages and rural areas. Manuel V. Domenech, President of the Puerto Rican Chamber

of Commerce, was among a group who had approved the letter which [119]

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ged immediate relief action and suggested that a declaration o£

un

martial law would facilítate the requisition o£ supplies, materials, means of transportation and personnel.

On the following day a meeting was held at the Governor s palace at which a committee was appointed to prepare an island-wide plan

of general assistance. At this meeting, Gerardo Sellés, President o£ the Teachers' Association, volunteered the services of the islands

teachers and the Chancellor reported that the University faculties

and employees were ready to particípate in any program which might be developed.

The University faced serious problems of its own as a result of the storm. The cost of repairs to buildings and equipment, both at Mayagüez and Río Piedras, would have to be met at the very time when hurricane damage to agriculture and to property of all kinds was resulting in reduction of income from the university tax.

On top of this there were persistent rumors of a purpose to punish the University for an incident which ocurred in 1925. This story is told in the chapter which follows.

As if this were not enough, there began, at the very time when

the University was- most in need of support, one of those series of personal attacks which have plagued the University at intervals throughout its history. A young alumnus of much ability, who had been offered and had declined a university appointment, inaugurated a series of two or three articles per week in the columns of the newspapers in which he denounced the financing and the administration of the University.

The series began with an interview in which this unhappy youth quoted Senator Santiago Iglesias, leader of the minority party, as saying that "our first cultural center... is a thing of luxury." The interview suggested that the financial support of this "thing of luxury" could be appropriately reduced in order better to finance other governmental activities. Senator Iglesias promptly corrected this misrepresentation of his point of view.

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With the legislature in session and the Chancellor making every

el'fort to get legislation which would bring more order inte the financial structure of the University, one of these attacks alleged that

the University had proliferated administrative positions in marked contrast to such state universities as those of Maine, Idaho, etc. where

a single deĂĄn sufficed. When the Counsellor quoted the list of seven

deans which appeared in tire Maine catalog and of nine deans named in the Idaho catalog, the young essayist wrote: "Dr. Benner, in trying to answer us, has falsified the facts, he has padded the statistics to fit his case, and he has tried to deceive

the country."

At this point the Chancellor called together a committee of student leaders, gave them the official documents from which the facts could be derived, and suggested that the University was their own and should, when necessary, be defended by them. He pointed out that a controversy between the Chancellor and an alumnos was most unfortunate and that this was doubly true when the Chancellor was a "continental" and the alumnus a citizen of the island.

This ended the Chancellor's personal involvement in the matter.

The Treasurer of the University and a student group took charge

of further correspondence.

This controversy would have had little importance had it not come during a crucial session of the Legislature. That it did not prevent favorable legislation is made clear in the next chapter but inevitably it made it more difficult to secure public and legislative understanding of the university's problems.

The story of the preparations to raise funds for the University

through an intensive financial campaign to be organized in the North is told in the next chapter. High points in that story are the gift of $50,000 from the Carnegie Corporation and the formation of a committee under the chairmanship of Charles Evans Hughes to direct the fund-r^ising program.

The death of Professor Emeritus Felipe Janer y SolĂĄ on March [121]

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18 deprived the University of a veteran public servant. Don Felipe had the dignity and style of a gentleman of the oíd school, yet he was alert to the changes of the times. He was respected and affectionately regarded by all who knew him.

Student activities at the University went on as usual during 1928-29. A few events may be cited to give a little of the flavor:

In October Enrique A. González, second year student of phar-

macy, was notified that he had won the $300 prize offered by the American Pharmaceutical Association to the student scoring highest on examinations given by the Association throughout the United States.

Miss Margaret Lord, trained in the new secretarial course, re-

ceived an appointment in the Library of Congress where, it was stated, her ability in two languages would be invaluable.

Dr. Víctor S. Clark arrived in Puerto Rico to direct a survey of the Puerto Rican economy by the Brookings Institute. Students of

the College of Commerce asked an opportunity to particípate in the work of the survey. Dr. Clark met with the advanced students to consider possibilities.

In November the Catholic students formed a Sociedad Católica

with the help of Richard Pattee, instructor in history, and Teresa Amadeo, instructor in Education.

Students of Business Administration formed the Society of the College of Commeice and Secretarial Studies, electing Samuel L. Ro dríguez, a third year student, as president.

The first game of North American football at the University of Puerto Rico took place between faculty and students on Wednesday afternoon, November 21. The game was won by the faculty.

The Chancellor, playing left end for the faculty group, was kept busy tackling Facundo Bueso of the student team who persisted in trying to sweep that end. It was a good game, but the ground was hard and sprinkled here and there with crushed rock from the build-

ing materials used in constructing the Janer Builcling. The Chan[122]

The Universitv of Puerto Rico — 1924-1929

cellor sneezed, the next morning, and discovered that he had acquired "green stick" fractures of two ribs.

The game resulted from the enthusiasm of an excliange student in Business Administration from Boston University who coached and played on the student team. Deán Mac H. Donaidson coached and

played center on the faculty team.

In January the completion and inauguration of the Masonic

home, adjacent to the Río Piedras campus, was announced. This new building was equipped to house 150 students.

In February the municipal administration of Río Piedras an nounced the offering of two prizes: a gold medal and §100 from Lic.

José Ruiz de Val for the best work by a student of the University on A Stiidy to Aid in the Development of Cooperative Societies in Puerto Rico; and a gold medal and §50 by Rafael M. Schuck in the ñame of Floral Park for the best work by a Puerto Rican high school student on The hifluence of Oiir University in Puerto Rico.

A baseball game between the university teams of Mayagüez and Río Piedras ended in a 4 to 4 tie.

A series of triangular athletic meets to be held on the 26th, 27th and 28th anniversaries of the founding of the University was an nounced. On March 12, 1929, the first meet would be held at Río

Piedras. The second meet would be at Mayagüez and the third at the Polytechnic Instituto of San Germán.

Responding to requests for support from a Río Piedras committee of university students, the public and private high schools of Santurce, Bayamón, Manatí, Ponce, Arecibo and other cities and towns protested against any legislation which would reduce the uni

versity budget or transfer funds from it. The alumni critic mentioned earlier in this chapter charged that the Chancellor had asked the

university students to undertake this campaign. The president of the university student committee, Antonio Colorado, answered that the inogram was entirely student initiated.

A debate was held with a team from Yale which arrived from

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New York on the S. S. San Lorenzo on April 8, accompanied by Dr.

Jorge A. Buendía of the Vale Department of Romance Languages.

The Yale debaters were met at the dock and taken to the Condado

Vanderbilt Hotel. At ten o'clock they visited the Río Piedras campus

where they were welcomed by the student body. Al'ter lunch at the Carlota Matienzo dormitory they were driven to Coamo Springs to spend the night.

On the following day, the teams were guests of Don Manuel González at his home in Salinas, returning to San Juan that afternoon.

The members of the Puerto Rican team were Gabriel Guerra, Joaquín Velilla and Antonio Colorado. Their coach was Richard Pattee.

The Yale team consisted of Woodfin L. Butte (son of former

Puerto Rican Attorney General Butte), G. Edward Lewis and Henry P. Blakewell.

The topic of the debates was: "Resolved that the development

of Pan-Hispanism would serve the future of the America's better than the continuation of Pan-Americanism." On April 9 both teams

debated in Spanish, Puerto Rico presenting the affirmative. On the following night, sides were reversed and the debate was in English.

The audience gave the victory to the affirmative both nights. The press and public opinión had become accustomed to the fact that in such encounters their youth did honor to the island and to the University.

By 1928-29 the public lectures given by members of the faculty had become one of the important cultural resources of the metropolitan area around San Juan. Four examples will serve to illustrate the variety of the 1928-29 public lectures: Visiting Professor Angel Valbuena Prat lectured on Lo popular y lo culto en la poesía moderna de España; Professor Antonio S. Pedreira on Tres siglos de San Juan; Professor C. Friederich Walbridge

on Some tendencies of the contemporary American 7iovel; and Pro fessor Fred Walters on Normal and abnormp.1 psychology.

Under the auspices of the Puerto Rico Light and Power Co., the [124]

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department of Home Economics gave a series of public lectures and demonstrations on the preparation and serving of Puerto Rican foods.

Professor Rafael W. Ramírez began volume 2 of bis monthly review on the history of Puerto Rico, featuring interesting documents

concerning the early colonization period. El Sol of Madrid reviewed most favorably Ramirez's Folklore Puertorriqueño, published in 1928 by the Centro de Estudios Históricos.

The five academic years from 1924-25 to 1928-29 had been years of change, both in the island and within the University. On January

9, 1929, for example, the first Pan American Airways plañe left Miami at 8:07 a.m. with 15 sacks of mail and four passengers bound for San Juan. This initial flight was completed at five o'clock on the following afternoon, — the landing being made at Puerto Rico's first airport at Isla Grande. It would have been a daring prophet who predicted such a development in January, 1925.

Three months later the university library announced that it was

receiving El Diario de Cuba three times weekly on the day of publication, as a result of the generosity of T. E. Hulme of Pan American Airways.

In April, 1929, the legislature passed and Governor H. M. Towner signed a bilí giving the vote to Puerto Rican women. Only two years earlier, as reported in Chapter V, three fourths of the men students and one fourth of the women students at Río Piedras had indicated

that they were opposed to woman suffrage.

Table 1 at the end of this chapter gives the data on changes in faculty size and preparation from 1924-25 to 1928-29.

During this period in which the regular-year enrollment had more than doubled the size of the university faculty had increased 65 per cent, from 74 to 122. The number of Puerto Ricans on the faculty had increased 109 per cent, from 35 to 73. The number of

non-Puerto Ricans had increased 26 per cent, from 39 to 49.

Equally important was the qualitative change which had oc-

curred. Between 1924-25 and 1928-29 the proportion of non-Puerto [125]

Thomas E. Benner

Rican faculty members holding masters and doctors degrees increased from 51 per cent to 63 per cent. Among the Puerto Rican members of the faculty the improvement was from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

To have improved the degree qualifications of the Puerto Rican faculty when, in the short span of four years, it was more than doubling in size was an accomplishment in which great pride could be taken. In 1924-25 very few Puerto Ricans were available who held master's degrees or higher. Young men and women of ability and special promise had to be sought, encouraged and financially assisted to prepare themselves for university careers. Only their eager response made such improvement possible.

Table 2 shows the changes in enrollments which occurred in the same period.

Between 1924-25 and 1928-29, the enrollment of college level students, undergraduate and gradĂşate, increased from 1,062 to 2,621, when summer enrollments are included. The regular year enrollments increased from 742 to 1,652. It seems reasonable to assume that this more than doubled enrollment, occurring within a four-year period, was probably accompanied by bigber academic standards due to the accompanying improvement of faculty qualifications during the same period.

Table 3 shows the increases in degrees, diplomas and certificares awarded in 1928-29 as compared with 1924-25.

In 1928-29, for the first time the Master's degree was conferred

in course. It was awarded to Miss Carmen GĂłmez Tejera in the program developed by the Department of Spanish Studies with the cooperation of distinguished visiting professors. The story of this program has already been told in Chapter VII.

During the four year period there was an increase of 64 per cent, from 53 to 87, in the number of bachelor's degrees conferred. If law degrees are omitted, in recognition that the new six-year program became effective in 1924-25 so that fewer law graduares were to be

normally expected in 1928-29, the increase was 142 per cent, from [126]

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36 to 87. The number of three, two and one year diplomas and certificates of college level increased by 213 per cent, from 69 to 216.

Sub-collegiate certificates in tbe program for rural teacbers dropped from 232 to 21.

Tbese data are tbe numerical evidence of growtb in quantity and in quality. Accompanying tbis growtb was a tremendous rise in tbe repiitation of tbe University of Puerto Rico, not only in Puerto Rican public opiniĂłn but also in tbe estimation of university leaders

tbrougbout tbe Americas and in Europe. Wbat bad been a somewbat neglected institution, witbout prestige in spite of tbe solid work it was doing, bad bccome a matter of great pride.

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Urgent Plea fox Aid Sent Hete

By Porto Rico UniversUy Head Cable to the Editor of Thü

Nfcw

Tork

Times.

SAN JUAN, Porto Rico, Sept.

14.—Immediate

SAN iUAN m IN RUINS

aid of the Red

Cross and all other agencies is needed. The hurricane damages are beyond estimation. All communications are paralyzed.

THOMAS E. BENNER, Chancellor of the University of Porto Rico.

COOLIDGE SPEEDS AID TO PORTO RICO

Eighty Per Cent.ofHomes Unroofed ¡n Hurricane

—Crops Leveled.

FEAR

OF

FAMINE

ARISES

Food Will Soon Give Out Unlé^

Aid Is Rushed, Says Uni versity Head.

MANY SHIPS IN GALE'S PATH

Red Cross Relief Unit Starts for Stricken Island After He New York Times headlines, September 1!, 1928.

Salvaging hurricane-soaked library books.

1 Ă­t"n,

Hurricane damage to the Baldorioty Building.

Contemporary map of path of hurricane vortex.