-DATE-
19691019
-YEAR-
1969
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
FIDEL ADDRESSES CENTRAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATES
-PLACE-
CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF SANTA CLARA, LAS VILLAS
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC RADIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19691020
-TEXT-
FIDEL ADDRESSES CENTRAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

Havana Domestic Radio and Television Services in Spanish 0307 GMT 19 Oct 69
F

[Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Major Fidel Castro at the graduation
ceremonies for students of agronomy and middle level agricultural
technicians, from the Central University of Santa Clara, Las Villas
Province--live. Others on the speaker's platform were Joel Iglesias, Jose
Llanusa, and Armando Hart. Prior to Castro's address, speeches were made by
the president of the university, Benito Perez (Matas), and two honor
graduates.]

[Text] Comrade professors, students, and graduates of the University of Las
Villas; comrade graduates and students of the technological institutes; all
comrades of Las Villas. This has been a year of few ceremonies. None were
held on 1 May, 26, July 28 September, days which were traditionally
commemorated with large ceremonies. This year no gatherings were held on
any of those dates, that is, there were no ceremonies of this kind.

In view of the fact that this year is the year of decisive endeavor it was
decided to save the strength used up in big gatherings, the transportation,
and all the time that is spent on each of these occasions and devote it
completely to work.

However, one ceremony could not be called off. It was today's. There were
two reasons for this. First of all, because it is of great significance. In
addition to this significance, it is because we had a commitment with a
group of comrades who graduated from the Alvaro Reynoso Technological
Institute five years ago. [applause] However, this does not mean that the
other graduates and the other students and the students who graduated today
from the technological institutes do not deserve their graduation
ceremonies with all the joy and with all the importance they represent. But
we once said that the number of classes that would be graduating with each
passing year would be so great that it would practically be impossible to
hold a ceremony for each graduating class. However, an exception to the
rules really had to be made on this occasion. Perhaps we will have to make
another exception in five years. We shall make it every five years as long
as we all enjoy our health.

When the 322 students who are graduating from the technological institutes
tonight, together with other technological classes that graduated this
year, also complete their university studies or send a large contingent to
a ceremony of this kind in five years.... At times five years seems long.
It all depends. However, it must be said that we were really surprised by
how fast these five years went by.

Actually, it seems that it was only yesterday that the graduation in
Matanzas took place. Perhaps the time does not appear as short to you
because you have had to study so hard and have had to take part in numerous
tasks. However, when I was told that those who graduated at Reynoso were
graduating in October, I was almost surprised.

Reynoso was also the first school to acquire a new character in
technological education. It was a school that taught a large number of
subjects. Several score, perhaps 100 or 200 students--I do not remember
very well--attended the school, and I visited the school to persuade the
students to change their system. It was the only school which was training
middle-level technicians for agriculture This must have occurred two years
earlier. Some of you may possibly have attended that meeting. We proposed
that the school specialize in sugarcane. We held discussions because there
were many pupils studying various subjects. I do not whether I ever told
your about the comrade who told me he wanted to be, that he was (?studying)
zootechnics, and zootechnics, and more zootechnics. And I tried to persuade
him to go to an institute we are going to create--the Libertad
Institute--our first institute for livestock, and to specialize in
livestock.

He said: But I want to study zootechnics. So I thought to myself: Well,
that is fine. I asked him: Are you going to study zootechnics to raise
elephants or lions? Why study zootechnics? It seemed to me that he uttered
the word zootechnics as if he were in love with the word. He could not be
convinced that it is what he would be studying, but in more understandable
and more concrete terms. I do not where the comrade is. Perhaps, in any
case I ask him to forgive me. I do not remember his name and perhaps no one
else does. He and I remember the incident. Perhaps he will soon be
graduating, and (?I shall meet ) him any minute. However, I hope he
studied. Because he was so insistent, I hope that he graduated also.

[Voice in the crowd: He is a veterinarian already.] Already? Ah! [Voice in
crowd unintelligible]. Well. He was not a great zootechnician if he only
became a veterinarian's assistant. It has been proven that we talked a long
time and he fell by the wayside. I do not mean to belittle the veterinarian
assistants, but he was in a technological institute and he should really
have already graduated from the university. Well, this is an episode that I
remember from the conversation we had when the school made the changeover.

When the school became a school specializing in sugarcane, and the first
group of students graduated, a commitment was made and it is really of
great satisfaction to all of us that (?six) agricultural engineers are
already graduating today.

The dates and--I can no longer remember--someone says that the 1964
graduation took place on 13 November. The comrades of GRANMA sent me the
clippings on the occasion of the graduation ceremony. That was the first
time that we received a newspaper clipping, and it may be symptomatic of
the fact that the revolution is already growing old. It is no longer a
thing of current history. Now we have to go to the files and here is a
newspaper of that day.

It is the 14 November, Saturday, 1964. I glances through the speech on that
event and there was an essential idea which said that for us, for the
revolution, for the nation, the most important thing was that you keep
studying, that you organize your life well. You, the comrades of the
school, the comrades of the university, the comrades of the ministry, the
comrades of the Young Communists Union, all of you should be attentive as
to how you are progressing, how you are living, how you have your life
organized, how your studies are going, how many hours you devote each day
to study circles, how many days you dedicate each week, how many months you
dedicate each year for examinations, how the programs are doing, if you are
keeping up with them, how the materials are doing, if you are abreast of
the materials.

How the University of Las Villas is doing, how the school of agronomy is
operating in the University of Las Villas, is it attentive in sending you
the materials and by organizing the short courses on time?

We said tat the commitment we wanted with you comrades, the principle
commitment was that you continue to study, that you become agronomists. And
although I thought that we would have the opportunity of seeing each other
many times, actually it has not turned out that way, you were too
dispersed, in too many places, and we did not have too much time. Our next
appointment with you would be within five years. Someone said something.
The agronomy cadre takes five years, I think, there was a discussion as to
whether it was four or five years. Then I said, but do not think that those
who go to the university every day are going to be left behind. They are
not going to fall behind. However, if they can do so earlier, we will get
together again in 1969, more or less, on a day like today, In Las Villas
University on 13 November or earlier. If you graduate before that we will
get together earlier to celebrate your graduation as agronomists.

Actually we have gotten together a few days before 13 November. This means
that in this regard we have overfulfilled the goal, you have overfulfilled
it by studying and I have lived up to my commitment. [applause]

That speech was, as usual, somewhat longer than I read to you, and I said
to you that you were going to be the pioneers of this idea, of this
concept, and that what you did would blaze the trail for the rest. If we
had achieved success with this purpose we would have opened a most
important breach for the future.

Regarding the data on the group of comrades who graduated that day, of the
91, I think it is worthwhile to point out that 71 continued their studies.
Only 20 failed to continue the program. Seventy-one continued and they are
at various levels in the school of agronomy. This is a high figure, above
all if one takes into account that it was the first group, the first
experience for the university and for the whole world. Amid difficulties
which still persist with transportation and communications, often due to
misunderstanding, it is really encouraging to have attained this percentage
and we are encouraged to try to increase it.

We must also say with apologies to the modesty of the comrades who are
graduating, that--there are 28 of your right?--12 comrades are already
militants in our party and 16 [applause] are militants in our Young
Communist Union [applause continued]-- in other words, more than 90 percent
of those who graduated in this group.

Here is also a list in which the jobs they are doing at this time are
noted: Various comrades are technical chiefs of the sugarcane regional
organizations; some of the are in provincial technical administrations;
others are in research institutes, others are professors of technology at
the Alvaro Reynoso Institute, the Juan B. Jimenez Institute, the Alvaro
Barba Institute, the Tobacco Institute-- even tobacco. These are comrades
who were in sugarcane. There were four comrades from the Carlos Manuel de
Cespedes Sugarcane Institute of Oriente Province. In conclusion, it must be
pointed out that two are already university professors. If we are to
characterize this procedure followed by this group of pioneers, we must say
that it constitutes a truly magnificent page as a result of the effort
made, the success achieved, the tasks they perform, the prestige they enjoy
in the entire province, and the important share they have held in the
sugarcane program for the harvest of the 10-million tons.

It is obvious that between 1964 and today great technical strides have been
made in sugarcane growing. When we gathered here in Santa Clara in 1965
with comrades from all the provinces to set forth the tasks to be performed
by 1970 we spoke of the technical possibilities of sugarcane production. We
said that by 1970 no less than 80,000 arrobas of sugarcane per caballeria
could be produced in Matanzas Province. Well, we must say that in the 1970
harvest Matanzas Province is producing the 80,000 arrobas per caballeria.
[applause] That is not all. They have produced a few more caballerias of
sugarcane than the amount set forth at that time. There is more. In the
nearby Havana Province it is possible than an average of 90,000 arrobas of
sugarcane will be attained. The possibility was not even mentioned at the
time because it was then believed in Havana that during certain months
there was no water or soil. However, the land appeared and the water
appeared. The utilization of the soil was rationalized, and it will have
more than 300 million arrobas above the goal established in Santa Clara.
This means that in the two provinces of Havana and Mantzas a reserve of a
little more than 400 million arrobas of sugarcane have been produced for
the 10 million-ton harvest to make up for any shortage that may occur in
any other province.

It seems that Las Villas Province will also have a surplus. This is always
disputed whenever estimates have to be made. You know that there are many
opinions. However, in my opinion,in view of my experience with Las Villas
sugarcane production in previous years, I believe hat Las Villas has
exceeded the goal.

It has been a good year for rain. The stock has been good. There has been a
large quantity of new cane. Cultivation has been better than in other
years. Then, we may possibly have a surplus exceeding the goals established
during that meeting. This was really the result of the implementation of
technology. A larger quantity was produced. The soil was better prepared
and better care was given to the plants, although so far this year
herbicides have only been used in limited quantity. Next year herbicides
will be used in almost all sugarcane fields. This will make it possible to
work on the harvest until it is completed without detriment to the 1971
harvest.

The technicians in the last year of the sugarcane institutes will work in
the program of using herbicides on the cane. We must think about harvesting
the 1970 crop without forgetting 1971. The sugarcane must be cultivated to
the optimum for the 1971 harvest. Not as many new sugarcane stalks will be
planted as in 1970, but cultivation must be greatly improved with machines
to till the subsoil, to apply the fertilizer, and to keep the sugarcane
completely free of weeds, which are still the No 1 enemy.

Naturally, more land was made available for the present harvest. Some
112,000 caballerias of sugarcane were made available for 1970. New winter
cane was planted during these months, but the amount of caballerias planted
was exactly the amount discussed during the Santa Clara meeting--some
provinces had a few caballerias less and a few had several caballerias
more. So much for the area planted.

Production per caballeria must be much higher. We must work very hard for a
higher sugar yield, because logically the harvest is a prolonged harvest.
In some provinces such as Havana, Matanzas, and Las Villas, whose
capacities are less, most of the sugarmills must be cutting operations on
28 October and must cut seven months at least. I believe that some will cut
a little longer because of the enormous increase in the per caballeria
productivity.

Logically, during this first phase, the stalks do not have the high yield
of early ripening sugarcane. In any case, even the most mature stalks do
not give an optimum sugar yield during these months. We must make
tremendous and optimum use of the fresh sugarcane. We must rigorously
follow this program in the cutting process, and many graduate technicians
will participate in it. They will practically be directing the cutting
programs, organizing them, and executing them. Moreover, it will also be
very important in [the sugar] industry in which university students of the
school of technology and other schools will also be participating in order
to obtain the optimum sugar yields.

We cannot afford the luxury of wasting sugar in bagasse or during the
extraction progress. This will be necessary. Work will not only be
intensive, but also for a high quality. No doubt, regardless of how much we
work, there will be no surplus from the 10-million-ton harvest. We have the
sugarcane, and now comes the management work.

it was not easy to obtain this sugarcane. It was necessary to work very
hard. More than 40,000 caballerias of cane were plated over a period of
months. We almost doubled the amount of sugarcane we had.

The new sugarcane will weigh more than the shoots we had before. We had to
do this while working intensively on highway, reservoir, drainage, and
irrigation construction. We were not only working with the sugarcane, but
also with rice in order to resolve the food supply problem,and were were
also working in many fields of agriculture. 1968 has really been a year of
great work and 1969 has been one also, and the work has been increasingly
effective, the results of which are now becoming palpable, they are
becoming visible, the outcome, in good part, of better organization, and
above all, of the application of technical knowledge.

The fact that we are now attaining some important production figures does
not mean that we have attained the optimum. Progressively we should go to
two-year cane with a much higher yield. Sugarcane, as you know, is
mathematical when it comes to results. A certain variety, in a certain
location, with optimum preparation of the soil, with an adequate
fertilization formula, with adequate cultivation and irrigation, could
easily exceed 250,000 arrobas in 18 months.

Historically, sugarcane was cut every two years, because many places did
not have irrigation and it was necessary to cut the cane. But now we must
begin setting aside land so that the cane will have a life cycle of no less
than 18 months, between 18 and 24 months. They are now thinking of working
in this direction in some provinces. They are planting the cane crop of
1971. And in others the planting of the 1972 cane crop will begin in
January 1970. This program will begin in Havana province. In this way we
will have a progressively increasing proportion of two-year cane so that in
1975 the province will have a harvest using 2-year cane. And it will have
yields of 250,000 arrobas per caballeria.

The rest of the provinces should progressively do the same. Why? So that we
can reach 1980 with 10 million-ton sugar harvests with 30,000 caballerias
of cane. We will cut 30,000 caballerias for 10 million tons. This does not
mean that we are going to reduce the surface area, but we are going to
double the cane with a little more than the surface actually dedicated to
cane. This means that by cutting almost half the surface area of the 1970
harvest, we will produce double the amount obtained from the 1970
sugarcane. And the country, with some 125,000 to 130,000 caballerias and
cutting some 60,000 a year, will produce enough cane to double the 1970
figure. This is the very obvious advantage of having the quantity to
cultivate later almost double the cane produced in half the surface area.

In 1970, next year, we will have to cultivate 112,000 caballerias. In 1980
we will have to cultivate 60,000 with double the cane because cane is also
a most important source of food for livestock, a source of calories and
protein through various processes.

The livestock development of the nation, not only of beef cattle, but also
of swine and poultry, will require large quantities of nutrients which will
basically stem from the cane. This does not mean that in 1980 we are going
to produce 20 million. We are not planning on this. We are planning to
produce 10 or a little, more 12 million, according to the circumstances,
and produce some 14 or 15 million tons of molasses. The sugar mills will be
expanded. New techniques are being tried out, such as making the extraction
of the sugar from the first juice of the sugar pans in the sugar mills.

This would produce a sugar that is almost extra fine and the rest of it
would be used for molasses. This would notably increase the capacity of the
sugar mills, also reduce sugar production costs. And work is now underway
in the prospective plan that extends to 1980. But this is based on the
continuous and progressive development of sugarcane agriculture, the basis
of the principal industry and also the very important basis of livestock,
livestock which has to do in a fundamental way with the standard of living
of our people.

Therefore, we are but beginning. And when we began for the 10 million-ton
sugar harvest there were practically no sugarcane technicians. Now we take
into account the figures of the graduates--we have 1,058 technicians who
have graduated from the sugarcane technological institutes. From 91 in 1964
to 282 in 1969 [for a total of] 1,058 technicians. With regard to them we
ought to make a supreme effort so that they will follow your steps. And
when we said on that occasion that what concerned us was that they continue
their studies, we should say the same thing today. And if we had the
patience and the confidence when there practically was not one--when we
only had 91--this is all the more true today when the first ones are
completing their university studies and others will follow them shortly.
This is all the more true now that we have 1,058 graduates.

Thinking of the future, that is, looking ahead, we must make a supreme
effort so that they will follow your steps. We must create the proper
conditions for them and not spare any effort so that they can continue
their university studies. You will understand that these goals, which are
not utopian, are very possible, and facts have proven to us that ideas that
appeared distant have been attained and exceeded. I repeat that these ideas
are founded on a genuine revolution in our agricultural technology, a
revolution that is being waged at an accelerated rate of speed. If it has
been possible to wage this battle of 1970, will not anything be possible 10
years from now when we have thousands of technicians and when we may also
have thousands of university graduates specializing in sugarcane
agriculture?

I believe that not only sugarcane technicians are graduating tonight.
However, the fact is that these comrades of the Alvaro Reynoso School set a
standard, and they showed us that this revolutionary idea was possible, and
that even more revolutionary ideas are possible.

Not only 1,058 sugarcane technicians have graduated, but 134 tobacco
technicians have also graduated. A total of 718 livestock technicians, and
as we have said, 1,058 sugarcane technicians have graduated. There are 645
laboratory technicians, 619 veterinary technicians, of whom the 154 are
middle- level technicians, that is, 154 are middle-level technicians, that
is, 154 qualified workers. During this same period--that is, 1966, 1967,
1968, excluding the previous graduation in the schools--2,872 inseminators
were graduated. With those who are graduating now, who will be graduating
early in the next course-- because there was no graduating class in 1969,
and there will certainly be one during the first quarter of 1970--we will
have nearly 5,000 inseminators throughout the country. We must remember
that there was not a single one, not a single one at the beginning of the
revolution. The technological progress that has been made in the
insemination centers is incredible, because together with the sugarcane
revolution a very important livestock revolution is also being waged.

We have been fortunate to be able to give sugarcane the attention it needed
during these years. However, henceforth its importance demands priority
attention, although we must say that in 1970, the sugarcane will provide
our livestock with 2 million tons of molasses, which to a considerable
degree will help to improve the feed conditions and compensate for the
difficulties arising from the relocation of the planting areas.

It was necessary to plant the sugarcane near the mills, because it was
senseless to have a mill with one, two, or three dairies at the mill's
door. If the sugarcane is located 10 or 15 kilometers way, transportation
is increased enormously. An important thing was done by relocating the
canefields. However, this relocation naturally made it necessary to
relocate the livestock, to find new grazing lands, and now very important
work is being conducted in the field of livestock. However, you an see how
many insemination technicians we already have. We have a large group of
graduates from the livestock and veterinarian institutes. Many of the
laboratory technician graduates are working in insemination centers and in
other activities connected with livestock raising.

A total of 6,140 students graduated between 1964 and 1969. The figure has
not yet attained the tens of thousands. They are still new technicians.
They are still acquiring experience. However, a little bit is something.
When we had none, when we practically began with zero and now have 6,140,
it is still a small but encouraging figure.

We are becoming accustomed to looking into the future, which is very
important. We shall also learn how a country is transformed and how a
society is transformed. What is happening today encourages us, pleases us,
and makes us happy. If we compare it with yesterday, it seems important,
and if we compare it with the future it will seem like nothing.

We intend to continue to wage the battle of education. We intend to devote
our effort to the development of the material foundation of education in
order to continue building the technological institutes, the secondary
schools, and the primary schools that the country needs. We shall allocate
many construction brigades to building these installations. The still
prevailing situation of small, isolated and poor schools existing in the
worst possible material conditions in which many of you have had to study
will disappear.

It is the revolution's intention to increase the number of classes in the
schools, the number of secondary and pre-university students, that is, on
the technological middle level. By mobilizing all of our resources, using
the students in the higher schools, using the methods of waging the battle
in the creation of the material foundations and in solving the problems of
the teaching staff, we shall set up compulsory pre-university education,
although this seems like an ambitious goal knowing our lack of buildings,
professors,and teaching staff.

Our country must become aware of other problems and become aware of this
fundamental and decisive fact, if we really want to look to the future, if
we want to face this future. What we already have is really nothing in
comparison to what we need, in comparison to what we must have in the
future. Do not forget that we have emerged from a situation in which we
were almost an illiterate nation. A nation can be called illiterate if 20
percent of the population cannot read and write, if 95 percent have not
reached the sixth grade. It is necessary that these people be transformed,
but that it be transformed above all in its youth, in those millions of
children and youths, because we must point out that nearly 40 percent of
the present population are of school age.

Forty percent of the children 16 years and under: think of the large number
that must be educated and maintained today, although not so literally since
those youths in secondary schools are now participating in production and
in the development of the country, and those of intermediate level already
have participated considerably. But this means that in the first grade
alone there are more than 400,000 children, and so on; there are almost 1.5
million in primary schools who cannot participate but have needs.

Our people today, the people that pulled themselves out of the hands of
illiteracy, have had to take upon themselves, with their very low technical
level, the burden of educating these youths, these children, and
maintaining them. That is, the task must be faced with a population that
has come out of illiteracy, possibly more than 90 percent of whom did not
reach the sixth grade. The graduates of this university, of the
technological schools, know well that without knowledge there can be no
production, no development, no country, no agriculture or anything else,
and that we would achieve less and less.

We have already entered the space age, and it is really painful to see how
here in this country, like in all countries of the underdeveloped world, we
are still using hoes for weeding. We must realize the necessity of
mechanization, of the use of chemicals, the increase in productivity,
because this is a challenge not only of necessity, but a challenge of
history, of the future of our peoples, if we do not want to remain in the
background, suffering all the moral and material consequences.

It is among the youths, as was understood at the very beginning, that the
revolution must make its maximum effort. But what results would we have if
we won the educational battle and solved the existing subjective problems
that we still have and the material problems that we still face in the
schools? It would mean by 1980 the country could have about 700,000
secondary students, 400,000 students in technological institutes. And
although part of these relate to the defense of the country, not less than
300,000 could be participating in production, in technological institutes
that will be built adjoining industrial complexes that are to be developed
over the coming years. The 700,000 secondary students could be
participating in productive tasks in agriculture, not with the
school-of-the field system, but with the school-in-the-field system,
regarding which we are already obtaining our first experiences and the
first encouraging results.

That is, within the next 10 years all this crowd of children who today are
6 years old will then be 16, 6-year-olds will be the youngest in secondary
schools in 1980. If we are successful, the large majority of the almost 1.5
million primary children will then be in secondary and technological
schools. And what can we say of the enormous mass that we will then have in
our universities?

The principle of universalization of university studies will have to become
a reality out of necessity, since there would be no university large enough
to absorb this enormous mass. The universities will be located near the
factories, in the plants, in research centers - the universities will
direct this enormous movement, but they will also offer postgraduate
courses in universities.

Of course, from the point of view of the students of agriculture,
technological institute students will advance the concept of linking
university studies with production at their projects. So, in a matter of 5
or 6 years, we will be having thousands of technical graduates who will be
working and at the same time, like you now, and will be studying in
universities. And this is what you have demonstrated, the great experience
that we must obtain in order to adopt all measures to make is possible for
technological students to continue forward.

For example, it is necessary to obtain information from the 718 who have
graduated. Not only from these graduating tonight, not from a portion of
those who graduated in 1968. We know where they are and they are studying.
But above all, those who graduated in 1968 and 1967. The first 345
graduates who went to different parts of the country, except a group of 90
who are now in their first year in the university. We need to locate them,
determine what they are doing--if they have continued to study.

Begin a serious effort; include in the plans of study all those who
mentally and revolutionaryily can be counted on who make up the great
majority. It will be our duty to place all graduates, but not the last ones
because, of course, with more experience everything is easier. Plans
already exist on how the graduates will be placed at the Carlos Manuel De
Cespedes Institute. Measures will be adopted to enable them to continue
their programs of study. And we already know what is going to be done with
the cattlebreeding and veterinary graduates. And again we say in relation
to these comrades, our chief aim is to create conditions so they can go on
to higher studies.

The Matanzas experience taught us that when they were assigned to a
specific region or a province, this facilitated the task. The comrades who
have graduated are going to be assigned to specific projects, in many
groups. And, of course, it will be necessary to create the conditions for
them in each of those projects. But meanwhile, we will send them to
specific points where the conditions already exist so in this first year
after graduation they can devote the greater part of their time to studying
and to taking courses. They will participate in projects, but the basic
task will be to guide them toward higher studies, register them, and, of
course, begin classes, while conditions are being created in the various
projects where they will finally work so that the physical facilities,
professors, and classes can be guaranteed.

Naturally, in the future, those most advanced will be able to help those
who enter their first year. A building with housing, classrooms, and other
necessary facilities will be created in each town, including the
cattlebreading regions and at the projects. Thus there will be large groups
to facilitate higher studies, which is what we are most concerned about. At
the same time they will take part as technicians in the development of
those projects. Facilities of all kinds will be created in accordance with
the situations of the students. It will not be a scholarship like the ones
now. there will be housing or shelter based on each case. This is our aim,
but of course analyzing all specialities. If in any one place some of these
technicians are needed in laboratories, we will try to create all necessary
conditions for study in that place.

Therefore, we not only intend, with the experience acquired, to adopt all
the measures right now to guarantee that you can continue on your way, but
we will also make an effort to locate the first groups of graduates, who
did not benefit from the experience and conditions that we now have to
carry out this task. Thus, today as then, the main interest, the very main
interest, of the revolution is that those graduating tonight in the
technological institutes and all the graduates of all technological
institutes will be able to continue higher studies. And of course, this
will be building up an experience, making it richer. There are places where
good conditions already exist. There are some projects that are real and
formidable material bases of study for agriculture, and the effectiveness
of the training will become evident there.

The universities' load will be made lighter. When they have to go, look
for, locate, and are scattered, it is not the same as when they are grouped
together. It is possible that in some cases, and in the near future, one
will not have to take courses at a university when we create all the
necessary conditions at a specific project except of course some laboratory
facilities. But the time will come when even the system of directed study
programs will be changed because the time will come when, more than
directed courses, they will be an extension of the university. And since we
have more university-trained technicians, the training problem will become
easier and easier for us.

These are the ideas and the aims in relation to the comrades graduating
tonight.

The number is expected to increase, with the pace of a determined
projection, by more than 5,000, independently of the efforts and advances
of the technological schools. In 1975 there will be no less than 10,000
intermediate-level technicians-- I do not includes the
graduates--participating in production. I am not counting those
intermediate-level technicians, skilled workers, inseminators, and
graduates of the technical institutes who are also enrolled in
universities. So there will be numerous agricultural and livestock
faculties, because with the development of the projects and the development
of these centers of studies, agricultural and livestock faculties will
develop.

This experience must, of course, be conveyed to the other branches of
production. It is perfectly clear that in the next few years the country
will have a rapid industrial development. The Cienfuegos fertilizer plant,
built by communist hands, will be a common site in our country in the
coming years. Industrial work will begin in many fields and the
proliferation of technological institutes in the vicinity of industrial
complexes will be necessary. At the place where the Cienfuegos plant is
located, a plant which will be able to produce 480,000 tons of nitrogenous
fertilizers, it will be necessary to build a similar plant before 1980, and
another plant for complex fertilizers. And it is possible that
petrochemistry will be developed in this region; it is an industry that
should be located in several areas. Nickel must be developed in the same
way. We must enter different branches of mechanical industry as well as the
food industry. The time will come when we will have to process all of this.
And this same Santa Clara Province will have to be the site of some of
these industrial complexes.

We have in Santa Clara the mechanical plant, a good plant where the workers
have a fine spirit. There, the sugarcane combines, which will free the
country from the present work of cane cutting, are being built. More than
150 combines are being built this year. Next year some 600 will be built
and in 1971 and 1972 no less than 1,000 will be built.

This country has a very high number of sugar mills, more than 150 sugar
mills. Sugar is fundamental for our economy so it is logical that this
country must have a good industrial base for the maintenance and
development of the sugar industry. We will have to acquire the techniques
and the necessary shops to produce the greater part of the equipment and
the structures of the sugar mills. It will be necessary in coming years to
enlarge capacities and build new sugar mills. Many of the parts that we
used to import are now being produced in our country, and in the electrical
furnaces of mechanical plants in Santa Clara numerous parts are being
smelted, parts which are indispensable for the sugar industry. We will be
able to produce most of the sugar mills parts and one day we will be able
to build sugar mills.

Likewise, it will be necessary to develop installations for the
construction of food industries. To cut rice we need dozens and dozens of
machines, and in 1970 we will definitely have a problem because the
increase in rice production will be greater than the mills' capacity. It
will be necessary to work at the same speed as we worked in the sugar mills
in the construction and installation of new rice mills. Even so, in 1971 it
will be difficult. Even with the tremendous increases in rice production
and projects which are now being implemented, it will be possible to grind
all the rice that this country produces in 1971.

In 1970 we will have serious difficulties. As a result of the productivity
of new varieties and improved techniques every year, it will be hard to put
a halt to these plans, to establish a limit when techniques and efforts
have achieved a very important triumph.

At this time there are 7,000 caballerias' of growing IR-8, and
approximately 4,000 more caballerias will be planted by the end of the
year. In the spring of next year we are going to double what we planted
during the spring of this year because we worked very hard in sugarcane
planting.

We will amply duplicate what was planted this spring because we also worked
hard on rice along with the sugarcane project. Yields are increasing and
there are new varieties, even more productive than the IR-8, IR8-288, that
is, IR-8's with other numbers added. They have been tested and have
magnificent prospects. Thus rice growing does not require a large effort in
the development of the rice industry. The number of mills needed is
considerable if we do not want to limit our production capacity for foreign
and domestic markets.

The situation in the dairy industry will be more complex, since the huge
numbers of cows we will have in the coming years, beginning next year,
requires attention to the problem of pasteurization, bottling,
transportation, and of course, the industry producing the countless
products derived from milk, which will be a decisive factor in feeding our
country. We have another similar problem. The food industry will develop
greatly along with the sugarcane industry. This requires installations for
the maintenance of sugar mills and factories and to develop those
factories, including facilities to produce the greater part of the
components of these factories. And it is also possible that we will have to
establish installations for the good industry in the Santa Clara region,
that is, to develop the food industries because the first, logically, we
will have to acquire. [sentence as heard] And we must keep in mind that the
large industrial complexes cannot be built in Camaguey, let us say,
machinery complexes, or in Matanzas, or Pinar del Rio, because the
population of those provinces is small, and the food industry by itself,
the citrus and the milk plans will demand the greater part of that working
force.

The industrial complexes related to light industry, textiles, footwear, the
machinery industry, or the chemical industry will have to be built either
in the provinces of Havana, Las Villas or Oriente. The big nonagricultural
industrial complexes will have to be built in those three provinces along
with the agricultural ones because the population is larger. The population
of Camaguey alone will not suffice, no matter how much we mechanize, to
process the milk and the meat that province will produce in addition to the
sugar, citrus, and other agricultural products. This means that all those
nonagricultural industries will have to be developed in the provinces with
the largest populations.

Fortunately, we also have here this university, which is notable for
agricultural as well as some of its other schools. But we will have to
exhaustively develop the schools of technology, mechanics, chemistry, and
industrial engineering because at least, at least, there is a good chance
that the petrochemical complex will be established in this province, as
well as the industrial complex for the sugar mills and the industrial
complex for the food industry.

They are studying the area and the terrain. Technological buildings will
have to built. Many of these complexes will have to begin in the
technological institutes--separating the areas used for industry and
housing because we think that an isolated factory cannot be built. Right
there where the Cienfuegos nitrogen factory and others are being built, we
have to begin thinking now about the urban development of the region. There
can be no industrial complex without first solving the housing problem,
because the workers would then have to travel great distances. This would
be reflected in their work attendance and discipline. There are cases, for
example, where a worker at the Van Troi factory in Guanabocoa lives in
Marianao or even farther away, and that makes it necessary for him to spend
a lot of time commuting.

Our cities are small, our social conditions are barely adequate right now.
When we begin to develop these great industries we will have to solve the
problem of housing, schools, day-care centers, and all the social problems
related to this development. We are also confident that through the modern
technique of prefabrication, which is already being developed and rapidly
organized, the problems related to housing, schools, day-care centers, all
these problems, will be solved quickly too.

And we have to build a large industry with communist brigades patterned on
the Cienfuegos model, which shows that a group of workers can do when it
has revolutionary spirit and well-guided discipline. We must say that the
communist brigade of Cienfuegos is ahead in the program of civilian
construction. It began barely 2 years ago and it has already finished 80
percent of the civilian construction. Its productivity is 1.8 times the
average of the rest of brigades in industrial construction, which are
groups of workers that have really made an effort. This means that they
almost double the average productivity and that productivity can rise even
more by using even better techniques.

In the coming years the country needs not less than 15 brigades like the
communist brigade of Cienfuegos. That brigade (?would end up being) another
important industry. But one is not enough; we need no less than 15.

Construction workers will be organized in brigades. There will be one kind
for industrial construction, another for social construction, another for
schools, and housing, each one a different type. Also, recently, the
brigade that uses slip forms--the brigade that built the tower here and is
building important engineering works--built a 17-story building.

They put up a 17-story building in 11 days. They built the basic structure
of the famous building being constructed in the Malecon in 30 days. Now
they have built the second building. In only 11 days they raised the
17-story framework. Using the slip-form and readymix cement truck system,
they reached the 17th floor in 11 days without a minute lost.

You must realize that if we want to resolve the housing problem--housing
for the industries, the country's economic [words indistinct], it is
necessary to use that kind of technique. Later the booms haul in the
prefabricated floors and set them down from above.

All these techniques are being examined and studied, and some of the
results are amazing. By laying one brick on another in a disorganized way
we resolve nothing. From the moving of dirt to the completion of the
building, it must be on the job. For we see many as yet uncompleted works
which is caused by the need to make-do here and make-do there. And this
causes low productivity. Furthermore, problems are not solved like that,
for they are handicraft methods of construction, and with such methods this
country cannot develop.

Of course, construction now will be given preferential attention, just as
was given the National Agricultural-Livestock Development (DAP) which now
has 70,000 men, and 10,000 machines, and dams are burgeoning everywhere.

Communications are being constructed everywhere at a faster or slower pace.
Thus in this province the construction of dams--two big dams were built,
big compared to our size--the Lebrija and Minerva dams, went at a splendid
pace. These already are storing water and they were built virtually in a
year, the basic parts that is.

Now we are building the Zaza dam, which will hold 1 billion cubic meters.
There is also the Alacranes dam, which can eventually hold up to 600
million cubic meters. The brigade that build Minerva was given the name
Antonio Maceo dam-building brigade, and the brigade which built the Lebrija
was given the name Maximo Gomez in memory of the great fighters.

Maximo Gomez fought mainly in the Zaza area, waged brilliant battles and
devoted part of his revolutionary life to this region. Maceo, who did not
reach the heights of Gomez, likewise fought for independence of this
province. We have those brigades those names not just to name them, but
with the idea that they had won the right to bear those names. It is not a
question of christening them thus.

There is a brigade being organized now in Izaguey to build the San Pedro
dam in the Jinaguayu--the dam will be called by that name, but the brigade
is not. The brigade will be given the chance to call itself the Ignacio
Agramonte brigade. We cannot name it so yet, though. It must earn it
through work, fulfillment of targets, and by displaying the spirit for
earning that name.

In other words, it must be a unit that works hard, with discipline,
experience, and imbued with a great spirit. Even now the effects can be
seen, the results can be seen. This brigade had only 67 trucks last year,
mainly Merlier, and some KP-3, and 33 bulldozers.

The brigades have built two dams. No province nor brigade has built more
with less equipment than those two brigades of Las Villas province,
notwithstanding the fact that there was no dam-building experience
whatever. There was only the old experience of one dam--the Ana Maria dam
in Escambray. Now construction of two dams will start, with indications
being that they will not be built in 1 year.

The size of dams has grown due to the geographic surveys. Thus the Zaza dam
will be of 1 billion cubic meters capacity. So, the people of Las Villas
will have there in the heart of their province a dam that is almost as big
as the Bahia Del Nipe dam. I do not remember well-perhaps some geologist is
here who could tell what breadth, how many square kilometers the Bahia Del
Nipe dam has--but we can say that Zaza dam will cover nearly 100 square
kilometers of land.

The result of this effort will change everything. That dam changes the
central highway, which will have to be rerouted through (Tahuazu).
Nevertheless, since the expressway will connect the country's two
extremes--passing along Escambray to the north--it will be necessary to
build a 5-kilometer road over the dam. Otherwise, the dam would force us to
go down the highway if we do not decide to cross over it. A 5-kilometer
viaduct will have to be built over the dam.

Furthermore, we will have to straighten the central highway somewhat. This
will not mean it is being rerouted if it is slightly diverted through
there. We will have to push it a little more north, pass through the
outskirts of (Sasa Del Medio) in the zone. Naturally, if we did not have to
do so we would not. But if we have the (?intervening) road, the central
highway will have to go a little further north. So the comrades of the
slip-form brigade of Lisante will have to come and build the pillars for
the viaduct in addition to building the dam.

In the next few years our dams will change, and rapidly. Five years ago
when I wanted to talk about a dam, I could not find a good dam or a bad
dam, or one of 100 million or 120 million cubic meters capacity. The first
dam built here was the famous and historical Ochoita dam. It was made of
concrete, and problems and all such things arose.

We were acquiring experience during these years. Later we built the El Mato
200 million capacity dam. But when we spoke of a 200-million capacity dam
it seemed amazing.

The first dams on the Minerva and Lebrija rivers were of 190 and 180
million capacity, respectively, Yet now we are talking of 1 billion and 600
million capacity dams. These rivers must be harnessed, like the (Gabama)
dam. Everytime there is a storm they flood vast areas around the sugar
centrals. The word we use when we see the (Gabama) and the Zaza swolleen is
that they are raised, that the Zaza and (Gabama) Rivers are raised.

These must be harnessed, we must use all that water. This region alone
contains over 100 billion cubic meters, which is water not only sufficient
to irrigate all the zone of Sancti Espiritu, but also to lend some of the
water to Camaguey Province, which likewise has a lot of water. It has vast
natural resources, and to benefit from this, the country will have to build
dams, roads, and new railroads because the little central highway from
Oriente to Havana and Havana to Orient will not and cannot serve the
traffic. For if there were more holes in it there would be no more highway,
there would be no highway at all.

Nonetheless, the (?railroad) is so great that with one double-line rapid
railway a great number of trains coming and going could meet the future
needs of our country from one end to the other.

These are facts: when the country and the revolution are developed and we
encounter all these phenomena, highways are of no use, and within a few
years the well-known central highway will look like a paved footpath, an
inferior road for traveling in the province. This goes for the railroad and
everything else.

Furthermore, development in the next few years will be a veritably blooming
development. [applause] This is why I state here that developing the
country cannot be just the result of the will to do so. Knowledge too must
be developed as well as technology; we must develop our universities to the
utmost.

This university will play an important role in the revolution and it should
play an even more important and decisive role in the years to come. By the
same token we must develop universities in other provinces. We will have to
do it in Camaguey. A [word indistinct] arrives in Camaguey and asks: Is
there nothing? If it is asked whether there is a school of architecture
here, the answer would be no.

But the fact is that architecture students lend tremendous help in physical
planning. All these agriculture projects, all projects requiring planning
down to the smallest detail. And that is where the planning architect comes
in. When we want to draft a plan here, the university cannot help. One must
say that the same thing is even worse in Camaguey, and this goes for almost
all the provinces.

In the past a university was built for political reasons, for some wanted
to obtain patronage, posts, and all that. The development of a university
will be a need. Logically, the universities in Oriente and in the central
area will be the historic, the basic ones, but the other
provinces--Matanzas, Pinar Del Rio--lie within the Oriente university's
radius of action.

However, Las Villas has this university, which should continue to be
developed. Oriente is developing its university,and Camaguey obligatorily
will need its center. We must make everything new in that province.

There is no other road than the central highway there, and whoever leaves
that gets lost in this huge province. There is not even a path in the
south; It should be enough to state that as for the rice plans this year,
with the rains of the watershed area, there were instances when all travel
was impossible; a rice plantation could not be reached even on stilts.
Irrigation pump motors had to be flown in by helicopter. That is the
situation.

In the north there is no highway either. There are 20 brigades in the
province building roads for transporting sugarcane and cattle.

At first (?the southern route) was attempted, but it was clearly seen that
these resources must be devoted to a (?farm road.)

Next year there will be 20 brigades, each one with 15 trucks of 17 tons,
and 40 brigades will be composed. And we shall begin the struggle of
establishing communications in this province, of establishing
communications because it has nothing.

And now we are indeed going to develop(?enormous) rice fields in the south,
the cattle plans in the triangle and rectangle, the cane plans. There is a
province that has enough refineries but in the past people were brought
from Oriente and Las Villas. There was no need for mobilizing volunteers
because the people forced to be idle in the off-season were working there
under the worst conditions.

And now you are going to see what it means to develop this province, to
find no road nor highway there and without a road there can be no tractor,
nor truck, nor labor force, nor fertilizer, nor fuel, nor machinery, nor
the construction material, nor anything.

And 20 brigades, where there were none, there were now 20, which have been
sent there in the past 18 months. They are going solely for the 1970 cane
in the nick of time.

There are two in the rice region, one in the rectangle and the rest
repairing railroad ties and making a road for the 1970 harvest. Twenty
brigades are marching; now they are 20 real brigades which have 12 5-ton
trucks. Next year there will be 15 17-ton trucks, because to all these
difficulties is added the fact that the construction materials have to
travel great distances. There if another place which has materials near, a
[words indistinct] a small truck can make headway. Sometimes it is
necessary to go 40 or 50 kilometers to carry the material.

But we are determined to win the battle in this province, to build the
infrastructure. What is there now is not enough for us. Neither the
pasteurizing plants, nor the refineries, nor the rice mills, nor the ports,
nor the highways, nor the railways are enough; practically nothing is
enough. Our development is now clashing with all this, and we must make a
still greater effort.

To mechanize the ports, there are already technical means for loading and
unloading ships. We have an example in the sugar industry. It is a good
example. Imagine if we had to shoulder-carry the entire 10-million ton
harvest. Fortunately a large part of it is already being turned into
wholesale sugar. [applause] but other cargoes at the ports, that is to say,
the goods, that have to be offloaded and handled, are tremendous.

This is an island, and the ports must be developed, just as
communications--things which are called infrastructure problems. We
(?should not) say it, but we see it, we see it, and we encounter the
problem every day. This will give you an idea of the effort we must put
forth in the coming years--in constructions, industrialization, and
fundamentally, I would say fundamentally in education.

All of this requires technicians--the cranes, the machinery, the [word
indistinct] systems--all require technicians. Today nothing can be done
without technicians. And I can assure you one thing; that within 10 years a
man with a fifth or sixth grade education will be less than an illiterate
in 1959. A youth who does not study and drops out in the fifth or sixth
grade will be less than illiterate in 1959. The illiterates of 1980 will be
those who have a sixth grade education or less.

Not it is necessary to have an age limit. naturally. I am not going to ask
the pensioners to study; this is not the time to ask this kind of effort of
them. However, in 1980, those who have a sixth grade education will be
illiterates in this country. Reality makes its impositions on us. Of
course, we were accustomed to another way. It is hard to comprehend the
importance of all these things because we are used to the other way--to
ignorance, underdevelopment, and poverty everywhere.

It is even hard to make minds become alert, to waken them from their
allergy to this situation, which can and must be changed since the
revolution was made pre- cisely to change it.

This is the essence, the reason for being, of the revolution. The task is
difficult because it starts from zero. The minority that hoarded the
knowledge was to a large extent the bourgeoise and reactionary. Remember
the history of the doctors, how they wanted to take them all from us, how
they tried to leave the country without doctors and without [word
indistinct].

Well, up to this time, the number of students of medicine is almost
striking. They comprise 30 percent of those who matriculate in the
universities. This does not mean that we want to limit them, but the
success of the campaign to support medicine has already been so great that
youths have reacted favorably to this hard career of rigorous studies. They
were not concerned about the problem of hard study, and the number of
entrants in the medical school is very high. We have a relatively good
enrollment in technology, which it will be necessary to maintain, but we
are very weak in the teaching profession, not to mention the agricultural
and livestock line. The rural area is in such terrible condition in this
country that for many youths talking about agriculture inflicts a trauma on
them. This is no worry. In these years we are solving the problem, not
through the entry of secondary school students, but workers and peasants--a
minority of students. The day will come when we will have to stop this
because the atmosphere of development in the country, the nature of our
soil, will make it possible that one day an enormous number of youths will
want to study for an agricultural career, a subject about which many youths
have really confused ideas and old concepts. The image of our fields is
really still very painful.

But there is a subject, the teaching career, about which there must be a
very special effort in the country. The promotion both of youths in primary
school to study to be teachers and of secondary school youths to study to
be professors must be one of the fundamental efforts of this country. We
ask ourselves this question: We have 1.58 million students in the primary
schools; so if we are to score successes in teaching--even enough to take
care of all this mass; and if we bring this mass of students to the
secondary schools and the technological institutes it is then logical that
the country will need an enormous number of secondary school, technological
institute, and university professors, now, with great effort, with the
monitors, more advanced students, and with audio-visual measures--which
will have to continue to be developed. But we have to struggle not only for
quantity but also for the quality of instruction. This is fundamental; not
only for quantity but also for quality of teaching. And we need enormous
contingents of teachers and professors prepared in the best way to carry
out a task that we can say is No 1 for the country in the next few years.

We must continue the educational revolution to educate this enormous mass,
this 40 percent of our population that is 15 years of age or under.
Therefore, it will be necessary to make our youths see the importance this
task has for the country, the value to the country represented by the work
of the teacher, the work of the professor, the work of educating this
enormous mass of our people who today comprise 40 percent and who within a
few years will be youths between the ages of 15 to 25--an enormous mass
between the ages of 15 and 25 which will constitute the essence of this
country, the intelligence of this country, the heart of this country, the
force of this country, the future of this country--this future for which we
have been struggling, starting from zero because really we started with
zero.

Let us take the example which has been furnished us by the comrades who
have graduated, and who have known how to demonstrate that with tenacity
and determination--as has been shown here--and with decision and conscience
that things that seemed difficult can be done. Let this example serve to
make us meditate upon these questions, to encourage us in our efforts, to
encourage all who have made it possible. Let it encourage our central
university, which has played a decisive role in this achievement.

Let it be an encouragement to our technological institutes, to the
professors of the technological institutes, institutes which today, as they
do every year, receive some of the graduates; and we never skimp on the
number required by the institutes to teach precisely because aside from the
enormous needs of the fields, we have the need for cadres in the
technological institutes. The principle has been established that, first of
all, all that are needed should be taken to continue the development of the
technological institutes.

The thousands already graduated and the successes attained should serve to
encourage us and increase our determination and our will to face the next
10 years; I am not speaking now of the 1970 harvest, that charge with the
machete that begins 28 October in all its force, an episode that must be
carried out with all the available energy and tenacity of people in the
subjective conditions which have been created. Our determination to cut and
mill the cane is unquestionable, but we must also think a little beyond
1970. We must raise our gaze from the present to the future so we can
perceive the tasks which await us and strengthen our will and purpose so we
can overcome them. It will no longer be only the effort of the conscience,
the effort of the muscles, and the desire, of which there has been much in
these past years. Now it will have to be the result of technique, of
experience, or intelligence. In the past it was the will that
prevailed--patriotism. In the coming years--united to that patriotism and
that conscience--intelligence and ability must prevail.

That is what the universities mean, what the technological institutes mean,
what the campaign against illiteracy meant, what education means, what we
hear constantly but with a more profound sense about any concept. It is not
only the aspirations of the spirit, the desire to learn, the desire to
acquire culture. It is also a vital necessity for our people in these
times. No wonder imperialism tried to leave us without doctors, without
engineers, without teachers, without technicians. They knew, perhaps better
than we did in those times, where the greatest difficulty lay and where the
greatest obstacle lay. When they realized that with small invasions, with
threats, with force they could gain nothing, they tried to sink us through
the economy, and above all they tried to deprive us of technicians; they
tried to deprive us of intelligence. What the revolution did was accept the
challenge; those who want to leave, let them leave, leave them alone with
their consciences. We also knew that we could not ask many of them to stay
here. What feelings could they have, what interests, what desires to help
the peasants, the workers, when they had developed other interests. Of
course, some technicians stayed here, the intellectual workers capable of
understanding their duty to act in a human and patriotic manner. The others
left; what could we do with them?

It was necessary to create a new mass of technicians, to make practically
everyone a technician, to advance with them. But our enemies knew that that
was our weak point, the weakest point of the underdeveloped countries--the
lack of know-how, techniques, and technicians. At this point they tried to
hit us with all their might. that is why every graduation and each
promotion is not only an economic victory, a technical victory, but a moral
victory, a political victory, a revolutionary victory. So the imperialist
better be ready, from no inseminators to 5,000 inseminators, from no
agricultural and livestock technicians to 6,000 agriculture and livestock
technicians; from a few doctors, with the number decreasing, that is, some
5,000 or 6,000 doctors concentrated in the capital, to a little more than
7,000 doctors and thousands more studying at the universities, hospitals in
the fields.

These are important battles that we have won in years of hard struggles.
Our enemies will have to prepare themselves to accept these achievements,
which may hurt them deeply because they knew that it was possibly the most
difficult thing to do. They all had bet that the economy of this country
would sink, that we would die from hunger, and they did everything possible
to achieve this. We have other problems, the problems now are what to do,
how to use, how to process the huge increases in the various areas of our
agriculture. And now, after the predictions, after the bets, they will have
to swallow our 10-million ton harvest. [applause]

In the pamphlet of Carrillo Colon, that famous, ridiculous, sloppy, vulgar
spy of the CIA--and you have probably observed that the CIA has not said a
word yet, although it was rather a painful thing...according to cables,
this Mr Spy is loose in Mexico and is even making statements to the press.
But, all right, they have been 100 per- cent unmasked and ridiculed. But in
one of his paragraphs he said in regard to the 10 million [ton sugar
harvest] that sometimes I say yes, sometimes I say no. Well, I do not know,
I doubt it.

It seems that the man saw sugarcane everywhere and has his doubts. And
still more recently, I believe that spokesman for the State Department said
that he did not believe that we could reach our goal, although he did say
that 8 million tons was possible, which at any rate would be a world
record.

We have really worked for the 10 million tons and we will not settle for
one pound less than 10 million. [applause] So if we reach 9,999,999 it
would be a great effort but we really should say beforehand that it would
be, morally speaking, a defeat. We are not going to settle for
half-victories. We have worked for the 10 million and we will not settle
for one pound less, one pound less than 10 million, which, as we said
before, would be a defeat.

It would be a defeat, not a victory because the problem of the 10 million
has become something more than tons of sugar, more than economy; it has
become a challenge, a moral matter for this country. That is why when we
speak in terms of challenge and moral matters, we will not settle for 1
gram less than 10 million tons. That is the criterion of the revolution;
this is the proof: We will begin the harvest and we will then see the
results. So we reject beforehand the praise of this individual for 8 or 9
million tons, or nine less nine.

Because we shall not accept any praise for such figures, we have worked
hard. A much better organized and more intelligent effort has been made,
and we are confident of the results. On the 27th we shall have our next
ceremony. There are the only three ceremonies of this quarter--the
beginning of the sugarcane harvest, the graduation of caneworkers, and the
beginning of the great battle for the 1970 harvest. These will be the three
ceremonies of this quarter, and as you can see they are all related to
cane, agriculture, education, and universities. We really believe that we
have reasons for being optimistic, for feeling satisfied, and we sincerely
want to express our sincere congratulations to all of you, especially to
the vanguard group, and to those others who also graduated as engineers.

To those now graduating I say as I said to the previous class--I
congratulate you, but the embrace will come when you graduate as engineers
within the next 5 years. To the new graduate I make the same promise, the
same commitment--We will meet here in November or October, or perhaps
before, we will meet here in 5 years at the graduation of those completing
their technological studies now in 1969.

Fatherland or death, we will win. [applause]
-END-