ation for
an economic
reconstruction
of
the
Virgin
Islands.
Civil rights
are
small
comfort
for
an
empty
stomach.
Unemployment
and
hun
er are
pressing
the natives
hard.
Just
around
the corner
is
actual
starvation
unless
relieved
by
emigralion
or economic rehabilitation.
In-
dustrially
speaking,
the
Virgin
Islands
belong
to a past
era.
St.
Thomas
is
¢om-
mercial;
St.
Croix
is
agricultural;
St.
John
is neither,
but
as its population
has
shrunk
to fewer
than
1,000
persons
its
immediate
relief
is less
a
problem
than
that of the other
two islands.
St. Thom-
as
is almost
wholly
mountainous,
and its
population is mostly urban,
seitled
about
the barbor
which for
many
years
gave
a
good
living through cozling ships,
furn-
ishing
them
with supyplies,
ard
seriing
as
a transfer
point
for
Caribbean
car-
coes.
(hanges
in
ships
and
shipping
have
spoiled all that and left the port
to
decay.
Its
inhabitants
are
now
largely
without work and
only scantily
supplied
with food.
Execept
for the
money
spent
by
the
American
occupation
and
remit-
tances
from
relatives
in
the
United
States,
the majority of
the people
could
not live at all”
A
number
may
work out
their salvatior
by returning
o
the land,
but
unless
the population
is
to
dwindle
to
half or
a fourth
of its
present
size,
syme industry must
be started
which will
produce
something
to sell to the
outsid2
worll.
In
view
of
the
cheapness
of
labor.
there
would
seem
to be opportuni-
ty for the manufacture
of articles requir-
ing a large
amount
of
handwork
an
i not
so bulky
as
to eat
up the
profits in
t1
« portation charges.
Economic
conditions
on
the island
of
. St.
Croix
are
as
bad
as
those
of
St.
Thomas,
but from
different
causes.
3St.
Croix
lives by agriculture,
with
sugar-
cane
as
the prineipal
erop.
Fora
good
many
years
the
sugar
industry
of
St.
Croix
suffered from
the
competition
of
the
more produetive
plantations
of
the
larger
West
Indian
islands,
but
for
the
last
three
years
it has
been
additionany
h:ndicapped
by
drought,
and
is
now
iacing
the
prospect
of
a
fourth
dry
scason.
In consequence
the planters
are
discouraged
and
have
beaten
down
wa-
ges
to forty cents
a
day
for
iirst-class
tield
laborers
and
twenty
to twenty-five
for seecond
class
workers.
KEven (hese
piti-
ful pittances
cannot
be obtained
six days
a week
the year around.
Tharee
or
tour
days
a week
is probably
a good
average.
Living costs
average
as
high
as
in
the
United States,
but
the field
workers
get
their
houses--usuully
contairing
only
ene
room
for
the
entire
family—rent
free.
:
The
field
workers
of
St.
Croix
are
made
up about equally
of
men
and
wo-
mei,
who
do
not
own
individually
sn
sere of the land
they
cultivate.
BEut
at
least .hree-fourths
of them
are unionized,
and
during
the
prosperous
year of 1920,
when
they forced
wages
up to
§1
a day,
the St.
Creoix Labour Union
bought
2,500
=3
.1t
12
Vo=
icres
of land.
For
the
most
part
the
.and
has veen
‘‘squatted
out.””
That
is
plots have
been
leased
at
small
annua!
rentals
to union
members
to
b 2 worked
individually, ususlly
in
the
cultivation
of
i
sugar
cane.
Partly due
“~.ack
of
ecapi-
|
tal
for
the
purchase
of
fertilizer
and
|
partly
due
to
deficient
experience
or
|
energy
incuttivation,
most
of these
plots
|
have
yielded
poor
returns,
even
when
|
compared
with the unfavorable
erops
of
|
the
whole drought-blistered
island.
Stiu
5
this "'squatting out’”’
is
the
most
hooe-
|
ful sign
on the industrial
horizon
of
St.
|
Croix.
Some
of
the
owners
of
large
|
estates
have
also
b
gun
to
''squat
out”’
|
part
of
their
holdings,
and
the
sys-
|
tem
may
eventually
emdrace
nost
of
i
the
cultivatakle
land.
Svear-y owing
|
on the island
is
no longer sutliciently
pro-
|
fitable
to attract
the
man looking for
big
'
money,
but the native
laborer,
with
his
|
simple
wants,
may
be
able
*o do it.
(To be
coneluded
i
Pass
It Along.
The May i 3 issue of tha New York Pest
|
Office
Bulletin
of
Information
contain
|
the following under
the
headinr
**Way
'
not
a post-office
ereed
777,
which
is deem-
'
ed worthy of passing
along to postal
em-
ployees and
patrons
of
the
Postal
Ser-
vice
:
I BELIEVE
in the
United States
Government.
I BELIEVE
in aiding it,
:
I BELIEViS
in
heiping
to
improve
post-offize
efficiency.
I BELIEVE
it incumbent
on
me
when
I mail
matter
to prepare
it properly.
{ BELIEVE
-
in writing the address
legibly.
I BELIEVE
in fullv prepaying
postage.
I BELIEVE
in giving the complete
address,
I BELIEVE
in giving the
street
and
number.
I BELIEVE.
in giving the
room
number
when
mail
is intended
for an office
butlding.
1 BELIEVE
in careful packing
of my mail.
I BELIEVE
in giving my
name
and
address
as
sender.
I BELIEVE
/
in early
mailing.
[ BELIEVE
I will be
a better
citizen
if
1
aid
my Government
by
doing
these
things.
The Postal Buliletin, June
4,
1923.
TELEGRAMS.
ST. CROIX STATION
Jerusalem,
June
14th --Sir
Herbert
Samuel,
who was
some
d .ys azo reporied
in gerger from bandits,
hasreturnce!
frem
Mutallah, where
he
presided
at
the
ex-
ele.ses
cel-brating
the
inclusion
of
the
distiiet in Palestine.
Two
more
British
cendarmes
of the ter who were
ambush-
ed by bandits
while escorting
the
Com-
nissioner’s party,
are
dead
of wounds,
bringing the total fatalities
to five.
One
gendarme
was
captured.
Sir
Herbert
will leave for London at
the
end
of
the
rresent
month,
for
an
extended
vaca-
ton,
Havre,
June
14th.—VFears
are
enter-
tained
for the safety of the
Polish
train-
g scheolship
“"Edvow’’, with
200
mid-
shipmen
on
board.
The
vessel
is
14
hours
overdue
here.
A
terrific
West
to
Northwesteriy
gale,
the
most
severe
in
many
months,
is
causing
interruptions
to the
cross
chapnel
service
{from Havre
to Dover and
Trouville Havre Roads.
Tientsin,
June
13th.—1i.i
Yuar Hun:z,
Precident
of the Chinese
Regpublie,
is
bLe-
ing
held
a
prisoner
aboard
Lis
special
train
in
the
Central
Railway
Sraticn
here, folicwing his flight from
the Capital
at Peking
on Tucsaay.
The
train is
su--
rounded
hy
trcops,
acting
undr
t
e
direct order
ot
Wang Chen,
Governor
of
the
(nili provine.
The
Dritish
Consul
was
foreibly
prevented
from
approace!:-
ing
the
traim,
The
President
is
being
A, it is said,
because
he
has
possession
‘he Governmenrnt
seals
which
he
ear-
.
with him in Lis flight {from
the capi-
tal.
Peking,
June 14th.—China’s
'‘Christian
General,””
IFeng Yu,
was
the active
mili-
tary power
behind
the
plot which P()rc'.ed
President
Li
Yuan
Hung
out
of
office
and
sent
hiin in
flight
to Tientsin.
Gen-
eral
Fene
with, Wang
Hul Chirg,
head
of
the
» etropolitan
Police
of
Peking,
handed
their
resignations
to
Presideat
Lio»"
—-sday,
declaring
they
no longer
I
id
office
while
their
troopgard
auanen
were
unpaid.
Preside‘
Li
countered
with a request
that they with-
draw their resignation.
When
Feng
saw
that
Li was determined
to hold the Presi-
dency,
Lie Issued
his
ultimatun
that
un-
less
(i
vocated,
Feng's
trocps
wou!ld
enter
the
Capital.
Then
followed
Li’s
flight
'o
lienisin,
Quevce,
June
14th.—Two villages com-
pletely
wiped
out,
several
sawmills,
a
dozen
or
mere
houses
burned
down,
farm-rs
ruined,
baras,
sheds
by the sco:e
reduced
to heaps
of
ashes,
farm
impe-
ments
lost and
immense
tracts
of
valua-
bie timber
land
waste,
represent
vester
day’s partial loss,
due
to
forest
fires
in
the
province
of
Quekee.
Tre
situation
in Temiscouata
county,
it
was siated
last
night
by
chief
[Forester
Piche,
was
“frichtful”’.
The
two
prosperous
vii-
lages
of Glendyne
and
Sillery,
which
were
swept
by
flames
and
completely
destroyed,
were
thriving eolonization
set-
tlements
in
Temiscouata
and
the
mills
and
oiner
buildings
whica
weat
upin
s noke
were also situate
Din the same
dis-
trie..