Martin G. Brumbaugh reconstruction unit in Puerto Rico.

              (Reprinted from Gospel Messenger of Aug. 22, 1942)

The Martin G. Brumbaugh Reconstruction Unit in Puerto Rico
A Civilian Public Service Project
BY ANDREW W. CORDIER
After a lapse of forty years the Church of the Breth¬ ren is again engaging in active contact in a practical Christian way with the people of Puerto Rico. When this little island outpost fell into our hands at the turn of the century, President McKinley appointed our own late and highly revered Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh as its first Commissioner of Education. The progressive though imperfectly developed educational system, the schoolbuildings in the capital city, San Juan, and in oth¬ er parts of the island named in his honor, and the high tributes which I heard from the lips of informed Puerto Ricans, should give Brethren everywhere a sense of joy in the example of his unique Christian statesmanship.
Today that light of Christian service is being bright¬ ened by the consecrated efforts of fifteen members of a medical-health unit operating in a needy section of the island's interior. In tribute to his island service, the new group of island workers has been named the Mar¬ tin G. Brumbaugh Reconstruction Unit. Its ripe field of work in medical service, health education and rural re¬ habilitation is a logical expression of Dr. Brumbaugh's hopes and plans for the island.
For Puerto Rico is a land of need—tremendous need. John Gunther in his Inside Latin America gives a vivid picture of the island's poverty. He speaks of being ap¬ palled at the poor dwellings, the disease, and the misery he saw. He compares the dirty villages with those in China and the slum dwellings with those in Calcutta, and finds the conditions in Puerto Rico worse even than in those countries across the seas.
My own impressions largely confirm the conclusions of Mr. Gunther. The closest parallels in squalor and pov¬ erty that I have seen were in eastern Poland, portions of Russia, the lower Balkans and the interior of South America.
Puerto Rico is a rectangular island—about 100 miles long and 35 miles wide—with irregular hill and moun¬ tain ranges bulging the center of the island and taper¬ ing to the coastline. Fringing large American-owned sugar plantations are thousands of small patches rich with luxuriant tropical growth. But in spite of a soil and climate friendly to the growth of fruits and vege¬ tables, island resources are hardly equal to the task of feeding nearly 2,000,000 people. It is the second most densely populated area of the world. Large families with an average annual income of only $135 a year live in little hovels—often 8 by 12 feet—and built out of scraps of tin, wood and grass.
In our forty years of control, millions of dollars of profits have been drained from the island by American sugar plantation owners. Since 90% of their trade is with the United States, the pitting of their low-priced agricultural goods against our high-priced manufactured imports leaves them with little purchasing power.
Poverty leaves its imprint on all aspects of life. Al¬ though their educational system is a progressive one, 53% of the children are still without educational fa¬ cilities. While the island has a good system of hard roads, most islanders are reduced by poverty to walking as the sole means of travel. Malnutrition and the lack of a balanced diet are invitations to disease. Says a gov¬ ernment publication, "The per capita consumption of milk is hardly more than a pint annually." While there is a wide prevalence of disease, there is a dearth of doc¬ tors. The island claims less than 400 doctors—one for 5,000 people in contrast to our ratio of one doctor to 750 persons.
Americans  informed  about conditions  in the  island
have felt the urge to improve them.   The most ambitious
attempt to eliminate the most serious conditions came
in the year 1935 with the establishment by our govern-
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Daryl M. Parker, M. D., Director of the medical work "which is to be done by the Mar¬ tin G. Brumbaugh Reconstruc- tion Unit, went by plane to Puerto Rico Sunday, Au¬ gust 2.
David Blicken- staff, co-director of the Unit, went to Puerto Rico June 10, 1942. He was accompanied by his wife.