New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-05-18

abroad. But once more let me ring tne
changes on the triumphant inquiry, What DO
,Oe acunt with Santo Domingo Well, 1
I hardly know how to answer the question FUR
Their after all. What do men want with any |
thing? What does England want with the
West Indies or the East Indies9 What does
she want with Canada or Australia What
does Spain want with Cuba. or France with
AlgeriaG What did the old thirteen States
want with the twenty-four States since
addede If could answer these questions
I might possibly be able to answer the question
which is thus Aippsnty put to me every day.
man who cannot see that Ssnto Domingo, il
it can be obtained honorably and without
bloodshed would be . valuable acquisition to
the United States, seems to me blinded by pref
udice. On the highest. geographical authority
sf,sr Cuba, that island is the most desirable of
al the West India group, and if any one OF
these ia wanted by anybody or if it be of any
use to anybody, Santo Domingo can be made OF
use to the United States.
But it 10 asserted that the climate Of Santo
Domingo is 30 hot and unhealthy that the
people of European origin cannot live there and
be active and prosperous, and, that therefore,
however rich and otherwise desirable that coun-
Try may be to others, it cannot be rendered val
liable or available to people of the Auglc-Saxon
race 1t is further alleged that all European
attempts to colonize the tropics Lave failed,
and that nowhere has the failure Of such at
tempts been more signal and complete than in
Santo Domingo.
There is in all this the appearance of abso
lutte indsputabls truth. But even at this point
of the argument against the annexation of
Santo Domingo there is weakness. That the
climate of Santo Domingo is at times oppres-
sively hot especially in her deep valleys, from
which the cool sea breeze is excluded by high
mountains, is true. That there are parts of the
Island extremely unhealthy, must also be ad-
4itted. That European colonization in that
Island has hitherto been a..failure may also be
granted without giving up the whole case.
Countries Of such variety. Of mountain and
valley and withal so wonderfully productive
will not be abandoned by man as worthless,
because they are hot and unhealthy, or because
repeated attempts to cOlonize them have failed.
Heat and cold, if not under the control Of man,
are within certain limits capable Of being rem
dered innocuous to him. 1t is his natural pre-
rogatve to possess and subdue the earth, and
by reason to parry. even the malign elements
that surround it. He can in some degree, so
far as their power may act upon him, make it
cool where it 10 hot, and warm where it is cool.
Every year makes some advance in this feature
of civilization, making man ever more and more
the master of his terrestrial situation. Yellow
fever, that terrible scourge of the shore line of
tropical countries, has been known to retreat
and disappear before the advancing forces of
sanitary science and other forms of disease
which ages ago swept whole tribes from the
face Of the earth, 40 now almost unknown
among civilized men. The people who lived in
central and southern Indiana thirty years ago,
and l spsak from personal knowledge were
thin, cadaverous, EN- acisted. The undrained
land, the rank and decsying vegetation, espe-
cially in her river bottoms, filed the air with
malaria and death. To-day that State is oceu-
pied by rudy and robust population. The
case al Indiana is that of Ohio, Michigan, and
of the Western States, generally. There were
men in those earlier years living upon the bar
rem soil Of New England, who would tell
You that they would not live in the West if you
would give them the West but now the worth
less West with Its dearn- oearrng Ievors mas
become about as healthy as the East, and the
controlling part Of our country. The sturdy
pioneers have marched against the Western
wilderness, and against the pestilence that
| walketh in darkness, and both have vanished.
To my belief there is not single destructive
element of Santo Domingo climate which may
not in time, prove equally vincible.
But am told that the experiment has al
ready been tried and has failed That the
Spaniards tried it, and that the French tried it,
and neither succeeded. But why did they not
succeed is the important question: To my
mind 1t was not because success was impossble,
but rather because it was sought by the wrong
means. Because slavery, despotism, absentee
ism, ignorance, and superstition have failed to
make the white race successful in Santo Do,
mingo, it by no means follows, that liberty, just
government, scie nee, and improved nipple
ments Of culture, an enlightened people, will
equally fail. 1 contend that the experiment of
colonizing Santo Domingo has not yet been
fairly tried. That country has been treated
from first to last by its European owners not as
land to be adorned and fitted for human
abode, but as q mine of wealth to be greedily
gathered and carried to other lands to be
lavishly expended, wasted in fact, by riotous
living. If half the riches given to the world
BY Santo Domingo had been expended upon
her own soil, in improving the conditions of
living within her borders, she would be to-day
a land of health and vigor. But avarice, avar-
ice, accused avarice has been her relentless
destroyer. CoLuxBUs had scarcely erected his
cross upon her soil before he inquired of the
natives for gold, and all who have gone there
since have been animated by the same insatia-
BILE thirst for gold, getting the most they could
and making away with it to other lands, leav-
ing only wreck and ruin behind them F. d.
No Peace In France.
Nearly every day brings news of great sue