CUBA.
On July 20, 1903, the Cuban Congress passed the following resolutions authorizing the participation of that country at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition:
The Executive is hereby authorized to dispose of $80,000 from the public treasury to meet the expenses which the representation of the Republic of Cuba will incur at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition which will take place at St. Louis, Mo., in the year 1904.
Of this amount $30,000 shall be set aside to meet the expenses of a special commission whose object is to study the advancement which may have been realized in agriculture, chemistry, and mechanical industries applicable to the industries of Cuba, also public instruction in hygiene.
The commission will report
the results of their investigation to
the Executive, which reports
will be duly published.
The expenses incurred in the
publication of the reports will be
met by the public treasury
and will not be included in the above
allowed sum.
On the 15th of July, 1904, the Congress voted $50,000 as an additional sum for the same purpose.
The Cuban Pavilion at the exposition was constructed on a lot 140 by 170 feet. The building was 100 feet by 80 feet surrounded by a garden containing more than five hundred native plants. It was one story high. At its front was a beautiful terrace, and there were extensive porticoes on the sides. Access to the building was gained by a 32-foot stair on the front, and by lateral stairs of smaller size.
Five rooms surrounding a central court. Access to the roof was obtained by a winding stair placed on a tower. The style of architecture on the building in its exterior court and entrances was Florentine-Renaissance, from the last half of the fourteenth century. The other salons were decorated in the modern style, called “New Art.” The building was lighted by more than four hundred incandescent lamps, arranged in such a manner that they formed part of the decorations. The cost of erecting the building was $31,050.
The members of the Cuban commission were as follows:
Mr. Gonzalo de Quesada, honorary president; Mr. Esteban Duque Estrada, commissioner-general; Mr. Antonio Carillo, secretary of the Cuban commission; Mr. Eduardo Morales de los Rios, commissioner of education; Mr. Sixto Lopez Miranda, technical commissioner of education for Cuba; Dr. J.J. Luis, commissioner of social economy; Mr. Enrique B. Barnet, sanitary commissioner; Mr. J.W. Flanagan, honorary commissioner; Mr. J.E. Bernal, Mr. Fernando Mesa, Mr. Francisco de Armas, assistant commissioners; Mr. Antonio E. Trujillo, disbursing officer; Mr. John R. Taylor, assistant sanitary commissioner. Technical commission: Dr. Enrique Jose Varona, doctor in philosophy and letters; Dr. Carlos de la Torre, doctor of natural sciences; Senor Carlos Theye, chemical engineer; Senor Manuel D. Diaz, civil engineer; Senor Ramon Jimenez Alfonso, agronomical engineer; Dr. Gaston Alfonso Cuadrado, doctor of sciences and pharmacy.