:
EDITORIAL.
In
this
issue
space
is
devoted
to
ap
article
copied
from the
Brooklyn
Eagle
the reprinting here
of which
s urged
by
several
veasons
believed
to
be
obvicus
to the average
reader.
The article
doubt-
less
routains
some
facts,
but,
asis
too
often
the
case
where
strange:s
under-
take
to
represent
conditions
in
these
islands
without
proper
knowledge
of
them,
or
¢ xperience
upon
which
to
base
conclusions,
a great
part
of it can
be
ac-
cepted
only by
those
blessed
with
con-
sider-ble
imaginative
alertness.
It
is
thought
weli
that
the
pubiic
be
afford-
ed
opportunity
to
know
something
of
those
alleged
to
have
their
wel-
fare
4t
heart,
and
publishing
tae
sentiments
and impressions
of such
per-
-8018
seems
a
good form of
introduction.
No
advantaze
having
been
taken
of
our
invitation
‘to
discuss
the
fish
ques-
tion,
it
may
be
concluded
that
those
who
pressed
us
to
bring this matier
forward
have
nothing
to
say.
The
Food
Com-
mission
is
"‘as deaf.aßa
post
and
mute
as
a stone’’, dud;&*g?i 'taking
shel-
ter heliind the old adage *a. wice
head
keeps
a still tongue’” even
#liough
thore
is
no ovidence
ofwisdomi §B this
case.
However,
as
faras
this+paper
is
con-
cerned,
we
coneiudeby
suggesting
that
{lic
wet
season
being
here
and
the
haul
of
fish
abundartly
increas-
ed
thereby,
all
the
fish
might
be
sold
at
a
price
within
veasy
reach
of
everybody
rather
than
be
kept
over
n
hand
to
be
corned
as
is
alleged
to
be
the
case.
Corned fish does
not
com-
mand
the price
of fresh
fish and
it may
probably
prove
more
economical
to
dis-
pose
of
the
fresh
fish
at
a
fair figure
and
be done
with it.
LOCAL.
The
Industriati
Band
played
in
the
bandstand
4ast
night
to
the
entertain-
ment
of a fair gathering.
The Creole
arrived
from
St.
Thomas
last night
with local
mails;
will
be dis-
patched
on
the
return
trip at Ba.
m.
to-
morrow,
and
mails
will
be
closed
ac-
cordingly.
Race
Hatred Grows
On
-
L]
°
Virgin
Islands,
Writes
Dr. Rutan.
New American
Territory
in Serious
{ondition, Due to Preachings
of
Black
Boss.
:
In addition
to the territory of the
three
islands
which the United States
obtained
when
it
purchased
the
Virgin
Island
ST
O RULE
&Y
S
NOTICE.
THE
repairs
of
the Bridgqton
Spring
Gut
road,
‘East-
End
Quarter’
having
been
completed,
the road
1s again
ogen
to traffic.
For the Road
Commaission.
+
F. LUNNEY.
groap
from
Denmark:for
$25.990,000,
Uncle
Sam
fell
heir to a racial
and labor
question
quite
as involved and quite
as
ditfficult of solution
as
anything
of
the
sort
which already
troub
es him
within
the
48
States
on
the
mainland
of
the
North
American
Continent,
:
Writirg
from
Santa Cruz,
the
largest
of the three
islands,
the
Rev.
Waldemar
[van
Rutan
of
725 Park
pl.,
Brooklyn,
curate
of St. Paul’s
Church
of the
Holy
i'rogs,
Upper
Leove,
in
Santa
Cruz,
describes
the complicated
forces
and the
difficult conditions
which the represent-
atives of the
American institutions
have
to
overcome
in
making
an
American
possession
out of this
negro
island
still
governed
by Danish
customs
and
laws.
“Things are
a little mixed
up
in
the
Virgin Islands,””
the
:Rev.
Mr
-Rutan
writes,
‘and
the American
Government
is
not
doing
overmuch
to
straighthen
them
out.””
The
territory
is
officially
American,
and
its inhabitants
are
living
under
the American
flag.
But the
Dan-
ish laws
were
in effect
up to Aug.
1, and
the transition
has
not yet
been
complete-
ly
made.
At
the-time
of writing
the
Ameriean
dollar compared
to the
Danish
dollar
issued
by
the
‘‘National Bank
of
the
Danish
West
Indies,””
was
worth
about
$1.09,
giving
the
Danish
dollar
a purchasing
value of approximate-
ly 92
cents.
Although
rich
in soil,
and
having
a
semi-tropical
climate,
so
that corn,
cot-
ton:;
potatoes,
yams,
rice,
oranges,
pine-
apples
and banaras
can
be and
actually
have
been
grown with great
success,
and
even wheat,
oats
and
other grains
could
be raised
with proper application,
lack of
capital
and lack of American
enterprise
have kept
the islands
entirely dependent
on the United States
tfor their focd.
The
chief product of the islands is sugar;
but
even
that is sent
to New York for refin-
ing, and reshipped,
so that the Islanders
pay the New York price plus an exhorbit-
ant freight reight.
:
Besides
these
gereral
industrial
diffi-
culties,
the more subtie
and more serious
difficulties with
which
the
Americans
who
are
assigned
the
duty
of making
this
an
American
community
are
con-
fronted
concern
the inhabitants
of the
islands.
They
were
very recently,
still
within the memory
of the great majority
of
those
now alive,
undera system
of
slavery
in
every
way
as
tyrannical
as
anything
recorded
of the ante-Civil
War
days
of our own South. Although legal
fieedom
has
come
to the
natives,
they
have
not-yet
become
acclimated
to
the
-
new
air of liberty; and conditions
which
discourage
the
Northerner
traveiling for
the
first time
through
our
twnp
S uth,
oniy
far
worse,
are everywherc
preva-
lent.
~
There
has been
little advance
since
the
slavery
-days.
Housing
eonditions
that
rival apything
we know
here in
lack of
sapitation
and lack
of adequacy
are
an
everyday
matter.
Whole
families
of
many
children live in
one-room
shacks,
sleeping
on
old
bags
of
straw
on
the
floor ov in eramped
positions
im
chairs.
-
While
this
continues,
the
‘‘moral
tone
cannot
possibly
be improved,’’ the
Rev
Mr. Rutan
writes:
““The immorality of the island is dread-
'yl
The
two questions
which
keep
the
is-
land
in
z seething
condition
of
unrest
and
dissatisfaction
are the
raee
gnestion
and the labor question.
The natives
are
negroes,
but
until
recently
have
been
satisfied
to
continue
on
a
basis
of live
and
let
live
with
their
less
numerous
white neighbors.
They
are
also
labor-
ers,
while
their emyloyers
are
almost
exclusively
the whites,
Within the
last
fews
years,
according
to.the Rev.
Mr.
Rutan,
the feeling of diseontent
and
hos-
tilitytoward the
white man
and the em
ployer
Las grown
until it forms
a lively
dans
er
to the eontinued
peace
and
devel-
opment
of the islands.
There
are
two
labor
unions
in
Santa
Cruz,
or St.
Croix.
One of these
is
the
Federal
l.abor
Union,
led
by
Morris
Davie
and
affiliated with
the
Anseriean
Federation
of Labor.
This was
former
ly conneéted
with the
‘‘St. Croix Labor
Union,’” but separated
from it on account
of
the radical
proclivities which
the
lat
ter began
to show.
The
*'St. Croix Labor Union’’ the Rev.
Mr.
Rutan
considers
as
a
very
vicious
organization.
It is led
by
a fairly well
educated
and energetic
negro,
). Hamil
ton Jackson,
whose
influence he finds
to
be of the
most malignant
sort in both the
industrial and
rac al quarrel.
"‘He is constantly
preaching
the equal-
ity of the black
man
with the white, and
even telling the servants
to refuse
to call
their employers
‘master’ and ‘mistress’.
In
fact, he
has been known
to
tell the
women
servants
to call their mistresses
by
their
Christian
names,
itthey
(the
servants)
are
ealled
by
their
Christian
names.
** *
And1 know of
one
case
where this actually
occurred.
.
‘‘Jackson
is
always writing articles
in
his paper —the Herald, published in Chris-
tiansted by the United Danish
West
In-
dian Printing
Plant,
Ine.—whiech
would
not be tolerated
anywhere else.
He has
been able soto overawegthe
whole island
including
the
Governor,
that
everyone
seems
to be
thoroughly afraid
of
nhim.
In at least one
instance,
whena
matter
was placed
before the
Governor- regard-
.
ing a sericus
breaeh
of the law by one of