conferring upon him the Grand Cross
of the Legion of Honor.

During these last few years the agricultural, industrial and economical
resources of Cuba have been developed to an extent hitherto unknown and
undreamed of in the history of the country. Industries have been
immensely stimulated, great new enterprises have been created, and an
expansion of foreign trade has been attained which makes Cuba in
proportion to its size the foremost commercial country of the world.

[Illustration: EUGENIO SANCHEZ AGRAMONTE

Bearing a name which has been identified with many high achievements in
medical and other science, Dr. Eugenio Sanchez Agramonte has added new
lustre to it by his own achievements for the health of humanity and for
the welfare of his fatherland. He was born in Camaguey on April 17,
1865, and had already attained enviable rank as a physician and
sanitarian when, still a young man, he entered the War of Independence.
His chief services were rendered as Director of the Sanitary Department
of the Army of Liberation, in which place he had the rank of General. He
was also Director of the great Casa de Beneficia. After the war he took
an active interest in civic affairs, and became the president of the
Conservative party. With the election of General Menocal to the
Presidency of the Cuban Republic, General Agramonte was elected
president of the Senate, which position he held until 1917, when
President Menocal appointed him Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce and
Labor.]

According to recent data the foreign trade of Cuba is $800,000,000.
Reckoning the population of the Island at about 2,700,000, that means a
foreign trade of more than $296 per capita. In the year immediately
preceding the outbreak of the European war, and before the great
disturbance of commerce caused by that conflict, the foreign trade of
the United States of America amounted to only $39 per capita, and even
that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to only $170.

Before the enraptured vision of Columbus, Cuba baffled appreciation. To
the more discriminating vision of to-day, her future equally baffles
while it piques imagination. Louis Napoleon, meditating upon the
possibilities of an American Isthmian canal, once said:

"The geographical position of Constantinople rendered her the Queen of
the ancient world. Occupying, as she does, the central point between
Europe, Asia and Africa, she could become the entreport of the commerce
o