'amp Adair Sentry
Page Fifteen
Thursday, April 15,1943.
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Costa Rica Haven tor
Canal Zone Officers
Land of Coffee and Orchids Offers
Welcome Escape in Cool Mountains
United States Army officers sta­ capital, clinging to the foot of a
tioned in the Canal Zone know volcano; Alajuela and Heredia, set
Costa Rica well. Before the war down in the midst of sugar-cane
many of them had learned to fields and coffee orchards. Here
escape to the little Republic just ■ are hundreds of small proprietary
north of Panama for a few days farms, from 10 to 100 acres each:
in the cool air of its volcano-ringed 80 per cent of Costa Rica’s culti­
highlands.
vated land is owned in such small
But here in North America you holdings. Here grows Costa Rica’s
don’t hear much about Costa Rica. famous coffee—which all used to
It is a quiet, God-fearing neighbor. go to the London market — its
It doesn’t get its name in the white-flowered, red-berried trees
papers. It is a nation of small clinging to mountainsides so steep
farmers who take pride in its sta­ you would think tne orchardists
bility and progress. And it is one would have to use ladders to tend
of the purest democracies on earth. them. The farms are neat and
The Name
well-cared for; their low adobe
It was Columbus who christened 1 houses have painted windows, filled
it "Rich Coast” when, on his last with masses of bright flowers;
voyage to the New World, he land­ their porches are heaped with dry­
ed at what is now Puerto Limon ing ears of corn, beans, onions.
and saw the Indians decked out The cities are small, low-lying, un­
with gold discs. He thought that pretentious. Even in San Jose, for
they must have rich stores of metal all the impressive public buildings
and that the river sands must he i and the elaborate, sophisticated
thick with gold. But the gold seek­ I National Theatre, and the formal
ers who followed Columbus were parks, the wide streets lead straight
disappointed; Costa Rica had little away into hills and fields.
readily accessible gold. The gold ■ For Costa Rica is still a pioneer
seekers went elsewhere, and only i country, like the United States
the farmers stayed. Costa Rica has Northwest. Much of the rest is still
mines, hut its real riches are in virgin forest — cedar, mahogany,
coffee—and in the bananas planted cypress, guayacan. Each year the
nearly four centuries after Colum­ forest is pushed back a little far-
bus by a tough jungle-busting New i miles of new roads. But outside of
Yorker named Minor C. Keith, who the few cities, away fror the few
also built Central America’s first railroads and the air lines, Costa
railroad between Puerto Limon and Rican life has all the simplicity of
the Costa Rican capital.
the frontier. A gaily painted two­
The Country
wheeled oxcart is still part of the
Mr. Keith’s railroad, which took Costa Rican farmer’s standard
19 years to build and cost the lives equipment. He travels from village
of 4,000 men, starts out among the to village in it—unlass he travels
palm and banana and cacao plan­ on horseback; in it he carts his
tations of the hot, wet Caribbean [ harvested coffee berries from his
coast. It makes its way through own “orchard” to the neighboring
a dense tropical jungle, hung with beneficio or plant for treatment
moss, vines, orchids, shimmering and shipment abroad; it may even
with birds and butterflies, treach­ be seen, pulled by a pair of leisure­
erous with swamps. Then it climbs, ly oxen, in the streets of the capi­
suddenly and precipitously, 5,000 tal.
feet up through cedars, past moun­
The People
There are some 639,000 Costa
tain torrents, across dizzying
gulches, to the cool central plain. Ricans. Only about 3,500 of them
Costa Rica is about the size of are Indians; the rest, except for
West Virginia—23,000 square miles the West Indian Negroes in the
—with only a little over a third I coastal banana plantations, are
of West Virginia’s population. This white. Their ancestors were hardy,
small territory is divided into three energetic peasants from Galicia and
separate areas by boundaries of the Basque Provinces of rocky
altitude. In the sultry Caribbean northwestern Spain who set a pat­
lowland, where it may rain 300 tern of hard work or small farms.
days a year, live mainly United The. men are solid, sober citizens
Fruit Company managers and the of dignity and pure Spanish speech;
West Indian Negroes who work on their graceful women still wear, in
the banana plantations. The Pacific the country, long braids, flounced
plain is a cattle country. The leal printed cotton skirts, and em­
Costa Rica is the lovely meseta— broidered shawls, the heritage of
the central tableland at an alti­ Spain. For gayety, the provincial
tude of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, with towns have concerts in their shaded
higher mountains towering over it. parks, and they still have bull­
It is a country of tall green grasses, fights: neither the bull nor the
fresh winds, and perpetual spring. torero is ever hurt and anyone may
Here live three-quarters of the try his hand. But the national sport
population. Here are the four larg­ is soccer, which the young men I
est towns, within a few miles of play in the park in the late after­
each other: San Jose, the capital; noons.
( artago, the old Spanish colonial | The Costa Ricans have set up
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Red Cross Stands
To Its Principle
______
under these tropical skies in the
shadow of these Central American
volcanoes, a way of life as sober
and deliberate as that of a New
England village, and as free in its
expression of opinion. It. is not a
way of life they would willingly
part with. In the 1850’s under
President Juan Rafael Mora, they
fought to keep foreign control and
slavery out of Central America.
They would do it again. They have
one of the freest presses left in
this world, and one of the most
enlightened school systems. Twenty
per cent of the national budget goes
into the schools: the schools are
free and every child must attend.
Costa Rica’s greatest hero is no
man-on-horseback, but President
Jesus Jimenez Zamora, who back in
the 1860’s laid the foundations of
school system, including public in­
stitutions for girls at a time when
many more advanced and wealthier
nations had never dreamed of such
a thing.
Every Costa Rican citizen is re­
quired by law to vote in the presi­
dential elections held every four
years and in the elections to the
one-chamber legislature. The presi­
dent is responsible to the congress
which may and often does override
his authority. The president lives
like an ordinary citizen, he walks
about the streets unguarded; his
house is open to any citizen of the
republic.
... and the War
This is the country which was
one of the first of the American
nations after Pearl Harbor to de­
clare war on the Axis. Months be­
fore December 7, the Costa Rican
congress passed a law providing
for deportation of any person cir­
culating Nazi opinions, and the law
has been applied more than once.
Since the war, Costa Rica has fjrm-
ly put her German citizens of
Nazi sympathies into concentration
camps.
Costa Rica has a standing army
of only 500; she has always been
proud of having many more teach­
ers than soldiers. But she has large
reserves (150.000) in proportion to
her population. She has a highly
strategic position, as the nearest
Central American nation to Pan­
ama, and her people realize it.
President Calderon Guardia warned
them recently that the country
might “become a field of opera­
tions for powers trying to commit
aggression against the Panama
Canal.” Costa Rica owns a stra­
tegic island—the Isla de Cocos—
southwest of her own coast in the
Pacific.
Meanwhile, besides he
coffee
and her bananas, and the cacao
from which are made some 10,000,-
000 pounds a year of fine choco­
lates for the United States’ sweet
tooth—besides these staples of her
economy, and sugar, and hard­
woods like mahogany—Costa Rica
has rubber which grows wild in
her jungles. The Goodyear com­
pany has a Costa Rican plantation
which is beginning to produce ex­
cellent commercial rubber.
Yank airmen in the South Pacific
don’t believe in rabbits feet and
four leaf clovers for luck.
Not they . . . but a story today
shows they believe in just about
everything else. Lt. Albert Kinder
of San Antonio, Texas, carries a
pair of red socks in his hip pocket
whenever he’s in the air. Just for
old times’ sake, he says.
And for old times’ sake no doubt,
Capt. Wayne Rathbun of Water­
loo, Iowa, carries two buttons off
a bartender’s vest.
Since the Nazi occupation of
Denmark, customers at barber
shops in many places must bring
their own towels—Danish towel­
ing has gone to Germany.
During the last war the mail­
order price for a pair of overalls
rose from 82 cents to $2.95, and at
About one third of the officers
one time a 10-pound bag of sugar in the Army came up from the
cost $2.67.
ranks.
t
"To Aid; To Act In
Relief—Build Morale"
According to Army Regulation,
the congress of the United States
created the American National Red
Cross with purposes as follows:
“To furnish volunteer aid to the
sick and wounded of the armies in
time of war .... To act in matters
of voluntary relief and in accord
with the military and naval author­
ities as a medium of communica­
tion between the people of the
United States of America and their
Army and Navy.”
The two main jobs of the Red
Cross, to bolster morale by reliev­
ing anxiety and worry of any
member of the armed forces from
whatever cause—at his own or at
his commanding officer’s request.
And, two, to obtain confidential
information on home conditions re­
quired by commanding officers in
.... of the Week
considering questions of discharge
He didn't know she was an office and furlough, and by medical offi­
girl on vacation. But she knew he cers in matters of medical care
was a truck driver. He came into and treatment.
the little restaurant where she
worked at three o'clock one morn­ Caddy Caddies for
i
ing.
At 3:30 Pfc. Oral Wheeler found Nice New Glee Club;
himself getting diffy-daffy over a CpI. Hayes Leads 'em
5" 3', slender brunette lass who
Inspired by Miss Ann Caddy,
weighed 106 pounds, was named
Melba and made his heart do cart­ Corporal “Oscar” Hayes of the
Timber Wolf Division began to
wheels.
It worked both ways; so three organize a glee club at Service
months later they decided to get Club 1 on Tuesday evening of this
engaged and in another three, mar­ week.
Cpl. Hayes, who taught voice for
ried. After nine months of mar­
ried happiness, Pfc. Wheeler was five years in Los Angeles before
inducted into the Army at Fort entering the Army, started the boys
Douglas, Utah, was sent to Camp off on community singing. Before
Adair and his wife followed him the evening was over, the vocalists
I sang Sibelius' “Finlandia” in regu-
shortly thereafter.
Now both, to set something of a i lar barber shop quartette fashion.
Those taking part in the singing
precedent in our Billfold Girl serial,
are
Cpls. Robert Getz, Gorlyn
are right here at Camp Adair.
Mrs. Wheeler works as a stenog­ Oldre; Pfc. James Hall; Pvts. Ed­
rapher in the QM Property office ward Milligan, Jerry Morales,
under Major Brandt. Pfc. Wheeler Frank Bower, Thomas de Mastri,
is a chauffeur in the SCU Quarter­ and Winthrop Lawson.
Pvt. Charles Duncan accomparw
master.
Mrs. Wheeler plays piano and ied the boys on the piano.
Hawaiian guitar in leisure time.
Other hobbies are horseback rid­ Nylon Screens Will
I
ing, dancing and bridge.
Be Very Fine Indeed
Yank Airmen Like
Charms—Who Doesn't?
Another contribution to post-war
living—a nylon window' screen—
was announced by E. I. du Pont de
Nemours & Co.
The chemically made screen can
be raised or lowered like a window
shade, the Company said, can be
produced in any color, requires no
painting, and will not corrode or
stain sills.
Its elasticity is such that pencils
or other sharp-pointed objects can
be thrust through it without dam­
age, the strands snapping back into
place when rubbed with the fingers.
The company said that wide-
scale tests would be made of the
material during the summer, look­
ing toward possible military use.
•3»
February, 1943
Eugene Gleemen wow Field House crowd ... civic leaders from surrounding towns
meet with Adair officers to map defense recreation program . .. opening of SCU Non-
Coms Club set for March 6 .. . Capt. Rutledge, Tent City vet, leaves . . . “Junior Miss.”
USO-Camp Show, plays to capacity house ... “Camp Adair Day” held in Eugene...
“Dogs of War” arrive on post, to aid in sentry duty ... bomb demosntrations staged . ..
income tax tables for soldiers, officers rear ugly heads . . . Adele Adair is busy social
butterfly ... weekend train to Portland popular innovation ... 96th Officers’ Club
bdtists “glamourizing” murals ... Sgt. from 96th has 27-year service stretch...
camp-wide contest to elect typical “PX Girl” launched .. . Ada Leonard’s all-girl troups
presents variety show ... gremlins noted about camp, on rifle range, in kitchen, most
everywhere ... Brown and Black upped to Tech. Sgts. ... Mrs. McCoy sponsors Liberty
Ship representing Camp Adair ... once more, that Hayworth gal smiles from the back
Page ... 96th League reported well in stride ... free legal advice developed by Lt.
Col J. W. Bonner .. .