Crítica
- Havana hurricane caused 30 deaths and more than 1200 injuries
- Chile's railway workers threaten a general strike
- Christ is a symbol of love and mercy
Crítica's page of 21 October 1926 gave prominent space to Associated Press dispatches on the hurricane that struck Havana the day before. It gave an official toll of thirty dead and three hundred injured, then an estimate of more than thirty dead and 1,200 injured, and described flooded low-lying districts, collapsed houses, the destroyed Maine monument and President Machado's order to shoot looters without warning, adding that Miami escaped serious damage. From Santiago, Chilean railway workers authorized their confederation to call a general strike once it had presented new demands, including the removal of retirement-fund director Róbinson Paredes. From Mexico City, Education Minister Puig praised Christ as a moral symbol but refused to allow his image in classrooms, blaming Catholic leaders for the rebellion.
Translation
Havana hurricane caused 30 deaths and more than 1200 injuries
Countless houses have collapsed, and others have been left buried under water, leaving their occupants homeless. Whole neighborhoods have been destroyed by the phenomenon.
WHOLE NEIGHBORHOODS DESTROYED
(Associated Press) HAVANA, 21. — It is officially announced that, as a consequence of the hurricane that struck this city yesterday, thirty people died and three hundred were injured. The lower part of the city was completely flooded, and although it is impossible for the moment to calculate the damage, it is known to be considerable. Thousands of people left homeless have been provisionally given aid and shelter.
A house on Fernandina Street collapsed, burying its occupants, of whom five died and eight others were injured. Another house, on the Malecón, was knocked down by the force of the flood. So far the authorities have been unable to organize the work of clearing the debris.
President Machado ordered businesses closed and instructed the police and the army to shoot, without prior warning, any person caught attempting to steal.
The suburb of Marianao, inhabited mainly by the American colony, suffered great damage. Last night the city was left without lighting and without water. Near Oriental Park numerous houses collapsed, and the barracks of Camp Columbia suffered considerable damage. Other districts of the city have also suffered great damage, and all the trees along the road between Havana and Marianao were uprooted by the wind. In the suburbs many houses collapsed, and at the entrance to the bay the monument to the sailors of the Maine was completely destroyed, with only its base left standing.
In some places the water reached several meters in height, and the firemen and police carried out sensational rescues, working amid the fury of the cyclone. Several members of those services have been seriously injured.
No news from the interior
(Associated Press) HAVANA, 21. — It is estimated that the casualties caused by yesterday's cyclone may exceed 30 dead and 1,200 injured, most of the latter slightly. There is still no news from the interior of the island. The harbor police found the bodies of the captain, engineer and cook of the British schooner E. B. Parke floating in the port.
IN MIAMI THE STORM CAUSED NO DAMAGE
Residents who had abandoned their homes yesterday for fear of danger are returning to them
THE BAROMETER IS RISING
(Associated Press) MIAMI, 21. — Apparently the cyclone that lashed this region for several hours last night caused no considerable damage. Many residents who had abandoned their dwellings yesterday have been told they may return to their homes, since the danger has passed. The force of the wind and the storm at sea are diminishing, and the barometer continues to rise.
Chile's railway workers threaten a general strike
The staff assembly held last night agreed to authorize the Railway Confederation to that end, but it must first submit a list of demands to the government
THE DIRECTOR OF THE RETIREMENT FUND
(Agencia Austral) SANTIAGO DE CHILE, 21. — Last night the railway staff held a large assembly, authorizing the Railway Confederation to call a general stoppage, but only after first presenting the government with a new list of demands, among which is the removal of the director of the Retirement Fund, former Democratic deputy Mr. Róbinson Paredes.
Christ is a symbol of love and mercy
But in view of the Catholics' attitude, its presence will remain prohibited in classrooms
IN MEXICO
(Associated Press) MEXICO CITY, 21. — The Minister of Education, Mr. Puig, replying to a petition from a group of Catholics asking that the regulations governing private schools be reformed and that the image of Christ be allowed in study rooms, declared that President Calles had never sought to banish from the schools those symbols which, like that of Christ, signified more than a religious ideal: a moral concept that kept before children's minds devotion to mercy, love and justice.
Mr. Puig added, however: “I must declare sincerely that, in view of the openly hostile attitude of the Catholic leaders of Mexico, who headed the rebellion in various parts of the country, and of the attitude of numerous members of the Catholic clergy who were closely connected with those uprisings, I do not consider it advisable to suggest to the Executive that it grant their petition.”
Context
Havana's first casualty figures and the later counts
The dispatches printed on 21 October gave an official count of thirty dead and three hundred injured, then an estimate of more than thirty dead and 1,200 injured, while noting that nothing was yet known from the interior. Later accounts put the toll considerably higher. The Wikipedia account of the storm records at least 58 deaths in Havana alone, many of them people struck by collapsing walls or flying debris, which fits the paper's description of a house on Fernandina Street falling on its occupants. A 2010 column on Cubanet, written from Havana, spoke of more than 600 deaths, without saying whether that figure covered the capital alone. Some details of the AP report match later records: the monument to the victims of the USS Maine, which the paper said was reduced to its base, is recorded as destroyed by floodwaters. The newspaper's numbers reflect the first hours after the storm, when the authorities had not yet cleared the debris or heard from the provinces.
Machado's order to shoot looters and later judgments of his government
The AP report said President Gerardo Machado closed businesses and told the police and the army to shoot, without warning, anyone caught trying to steal. Later accounts of the hurricane record the same order, stating that Machado told the police to shoot people attempting to loot without warning; that account names only the police, while the paper also named the army. Machado's handling of the storm later became material for political argument. In a 2010 Cubanet column, Tania Díaz Castro called Machado a dictator who had taken no measures of any kind against the storm. That judgment is a retrospective opinion by a writer comparing 1926 with Havana's decay under the Castro government, not a contemporary record. The 1926 dispatch itself shows thousands receiving provisional aid and shelter while the president issued a harsh order against looting.
The Chilean railway retirement fund and the demand against its director
The Retirement Fund named in the Agencia Austral dispatch was the Caja de Retiros y de Previsión Social de los Ferrocarriles del Estado, created by law in 1918. According to the National Library of Chile's Memoria Chilena, it helped State Railways employees and workers buy, rent and build homes, and it maintained a retirement fund for workers' pensions. Its director therefore controlled money tied to railway families' housing and old age, which helps explain why his removal could appear among strike demands. The dispatch identifies the director as Róbinson Paredes, a former Democratic deputy, but gives no reason for the workers' demand against him and does not say whether the stoppage went ahead.
School policy in Mexico's 1926 church–state conflict
Minister Puig's reply concerned regulations for private schools, a field the 1917 Constitution had already made contested: its Article 3 demanded secular education in schools. Under President Plutarco Elías Calles, enforcement grew sharper. To enforce the 1926 penal-code reform known as the Calles Law, the government seized church property, expelled foreign priests and closed monasteries, convents and religious schools. Catholics answered on several fronts. On 11 July 1926 the bishops voted to suspend public worship in response to the Calles Law, and during a boycott in west-central Mexico Catholic teachers stopped teaching in secular schools. The petition to place the image of Christ in study rooms thus came from a community already in open dispute with the state over children's education. Puig's answer, praising Christ as a moral symbol while refusing the request, shows the government holding its line while trying not to appear hostile to Christianity itself.
The rebellion Puig blamed on Catholic leaders
When Puig spoke of Catholic leaders heading the rebellion in various parts of the country, he was referring to armed uprisings that had begun in the weeks before this dispatch. On 22 September 1926 Congress rejected the bishops' proposal to amend the constitution, and on 28 September Luis Navarro Origel, mayor of Pénjamo in Guanajuato, launched an uprising. These local revolts preceded the formal rebellion, which began on 1 January 1927, when the rebels called themselves Cristeros because they believed they were fighting for Christ himself. Puig's statement that Catholic leaders and clergy drove the uprisings was the government's position; whether the episcopate or the Pope supported the Cristeros' actions later became a subject of controversy.
Original
EL HURACAN DE HABANA OCASIONO 30 MUERTES Y MAS DE 1200 HERIDOS
CAUSO ESTRAGOS E EL HURACAN DE HABANA OCASIONO 30 MUERTES Y MAS DE 1200 HERIDOS Innumerables casas se han derrumbado, y otras han quedado sepultadas bajo el agua, dejando sin hogar a sus moradores. Hay barrios enteros destruídos por el fenómeno BARRIOS ENTEROS QUEDARON DESTRUIDOS (Associated Press) LA HABANA, 21. - Oficialmente se anuncia, que a consecuencias del huracán que azotó ayer a esta ciudad, murieron treinta personas y trescientas quedaron heridas. La parte baja de la ciudad quedó completamente inundada, y aunque es imposible, por el momento, calcular los perjuicios, sa sabe que éstos son considerables. Provisoriamente se les ha dado ayuda y abrigo a miles de personas que quedaron sin hogar. Una casa de la calle Fernandina se derrumbó, sepultando a sus moradores, de los cuales cinco murieron y otros ocho quedaron heridos. Otra casa, en el Malecón, fué derribada por la fuerza de la inundación. Hasta ahora, las autoridades se han visto imposibilitadas para organizar el trabajo de la remoción de escombros. El presidente Machado ordenó el cierre del comercio, y dió instrucciones a la policía y al ejército de fusilar, sin advertencia previa, a toda persona que se descubriese intentando robar. El suburbio Marianao, habitado principalmente por la colonia norteamericana, sufrió grandes perjuicios. Anoche la ciudad quedó sin alumbrado y sin agua. Cerca del Parque Oriental, se hundieron numerosas casas, y los cuarteles del Campo Columbia, sufrieron deterioros de consideración Otros distritos de la ciudad también han sufrido grandes daños y todos los árboles del camino entre La Habana y Marianao, fueron desarraigados por el viento. En los suburbios se hundieron muchas casas, y en la entrada de la bahía, el monumento a los marinos del Maine, fué completamente destruído, quedando solamente la base en pie. El agua alcanzó en algunas partes varios metros de altura, y los bomberos y la policía efectuaron salvamentos sensacionales, trabajan do en medio de la furia del ciclón. Varios miembros de esas instituciones han quedado gravemente heri dos. No se tienen noticias del interior - (Associated Press) LA HABANA, 21. - Se calcula que las víctimas causadas por el ciclón de ayer, pueden exceder de 30 muertos y 1. 200 heridos, la mayoría de éstos de carácter leve. Aún se carece de noticias del interior de la isla. La policía del puerto encontró flotando en el puerto los cadáveres del capitán, ingeniero y cocinero de la goleta británica E. B. Parke. EN MIAMI LA TORMENTA NO CAUSO DAÑOS Los habitantes que habían abandonado ayer sus casas por temor al peligro, están regresando a ellas EL BAROMETRO SUBE (Associated Press) MIAMI, 21. - Aparentemente, el ciclón que azotó anoche durante varias horas esta región, no causó daños de consideración. Muchos habitantes que habían abandonado ayer sus moradas, han sido avisados que pueden regresar a sus casas, pues el peligro ha pasado. La intensidad del viento y el temporal en el mar están desminuyendo, y el barómetro continúa subiendo. REINA GRAN ANIMACION EN TOLEDO CON MOTIVO DE LAS FIESTAS RELIGIOSAS Miguel Nappe, el gua
LOS FERROVIARIOS DE CHILE AMENAZAN CON UNA HUELGA GENERAL
CLON EN ANTILLAS LOS FERROVIARIOS DE CHILE AMENAZAN CON UNA HUELGA GENERAL La asamblea del personal, efectuada anoche, acordó autorizar en ese sentido a la Confederación Ferroviaria, debiendo antes elevar un pliego de peticiones al gobierno EL DIRECTOR DE LA CAJA DE RETIRO (Agencia Austral) SANTIAGO DE CHILE, 21. - Anoche efectuó una gran asamblea el personal ferroviario, autorizando a la Confederación Ferroviaria para ir a un paro general, pero que antes de hacerlo presente al gobierno un nuevo pliego de peticiones, entre las que figura la separación del director de la Caja de ReEN ALEMANIA SE ELOGIA A EUGENIO DEBS Todos los diarios de ese país dedican extensos artículos al
CRISTO ES UN SIMBOLO DE AMOR Y PIEDAD
nuevo pliego de peticiones, entre las que figura la separación del director de la Caja de Retiro, ex diputado demócrata, señor Róbinson Paredes. CRISTO ES UN SIMBOLO DE AMOR Y PIEDAD Pero en vista de la actitud de los católicos, su presencia continuará siendo prohibida en las aulas EN MEJICO (Associated Press) MEJICO, 21. - El ministro de Instrucción, señor Puig, contestando a una petición de un grupo de católicos, para que se reformasen los reglamentos a que están sujetos los colegios particulares y que se permitiese colocar la imagen de Cristo en las salas de estudio, declaró que el presidente Calles nunca había pretendido proscribir de las escuelas aquellos símbolos, que, como el de Cristo, significaban más que un ideal religioso, un concepto moral, que hacía que los niños tuviesen presente el culto hacia la piedad, el amor y la justicia. El señor Puig agrega: sin embargo " debo declarar sinceramente, que, en vista de la actitud abiertamente hostil de los dirigentes católicos de Méjico, quienes encabezaron la rebelión en varias zonas del país, y de la actitud de numerosos miembros del clero católico que estuvieron íntimamente relacionados con esos amotinamientos, no considero conveniente sugerir al Ejecutivo que acceda a su petición ". CON EL RETIRO DE ZO ARMADA RUSA SUSH VIAJE EN TORNO
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina