New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-18
from the New York Independent
Life In San Domingo.
BY SAMUEL G. HOWE, NJ. ID.

linen, with doors and windows wide open al
the lve-long day and night, and are famed
by the soft trade winds.
We have been familiar with various eli.
mates; but have never known any so deli.
cious to the senses or more salubrious than
that of this beautiful island.
Already the clouds OF ignorance and error
which obscure from ones sight at home the
real condition of affairs here have cleared
away, and we are able to correct many pop
ular errors.
The idea that men cannot or will not work
in the Tropics was dispelled at Puerto Platte
by the sight of lighters padding to meet
US, manned by brawny laborers, who rushed
at the cargo and swung it into their boats.
Nearing the shore, it was received by
transfers, who had driven their buli-carts
hub deep into the water, and then urged them
with sharp voice and sticks up the beach, to
the open warehouses, where other laborers
slowed it away. -'
All day long, and far into the evening they
worked by moonlight, and made night noisy
by their shouts and laughter. They chat
tered in various languages, among which the
English predominates.
Puerto Platte is a phenomenon rarely seen
hitherto III the Tropics for it is animated by
a spirit caught from the United States, and
work is the order Of the day. Merchants,
traders, and laborers are active and earnest,
because they work in freedom and reap fair
| harvest of grain. .
The town was devastated last season by
cOntiagratiOn, as serious to its inhabitants as
was that at Chicago to hers. Already new
| and better stores and houses rise out of the
| ruins, on streets broader and better than the
old ones.
Hardly twelve hours after landing our
goods, most OF them were on their winding
way toward the interior town of st. Jago, over
a rough natural road, where is already an ac-
tive transportation, the annual cost of which
is more than half a million dollars.
Men will not work in the Tropics except
under coercion! AS well say that the honey
bee, impelled in the temperate zone to hive
honey for winters food, will not store it where
the " flowers ever blossom, the beams ever
shine" Imported into this island, the bee,
mpelled by instinct, hives honey perpetually.
Man is not whit less industrious by ma
ture than the bee; and will work everywhere,
when the natural rewards of industry are
fairly shared among those who exercise it,
instead of being taxed, or monopolized by q
favored class.
Hitherto the virile men of the North have
gone to the Tropics in the spirit of the old
dispensation-to dominate the softer natives,
to make them hewers Of wood and drawers
their work.
But when the North shall approach the
South in the spirit of the new dispensation
disposed to do as it would be done by. to
share fairly the profits of work ; and shall APP
ply its cultivated brain and improved ma
chinery to the development Of tropical fecun-
dities-then will the South respond eagerly
and work tremendously. And harvests null
tiplied an hundred fold will provide food for
the human race at far less cost of labor than
Is now necessary.
Who cannot see in this clue to the solu-
ton of the vexed question of labor?
Here Mother Earth offers yearly three
crops of some kinds of food, in return for
less work than she gives for one crop in the
North.
Here the farmer is spared the great outlay
necessary for building house and barn, secure
against the destructive agency of frost, and
for keeping family and cattle warm during
the long winter weather, when he can do lit
tie work.
When the great tropical belt (the natural
garden of the globe) can be skillfully culti-
waited, and its abundant harvests freely dis
tributed, one hours labor will be as produc-
tive as three are at present; and, therefore,
the multltudes who must now work from morn
till night for the support of the human family
will have breathing time from their toll.
AT SANTANA Bay other mistaken ideas of
our people were exposed, and the utter unre-
liability Of Congressional diatribes and party
ordinations were clearly proved.
Our Government has been accused of un-
lawfully occupying foreign territory, and
exercising sovereignty, in defiance of inter-
national law. But we find that on the ter
mination of treaty negotiations for annexa-
ton President Grant hauled down our flag,
which has been replaced by the Dominican
standard and yet peace and order reign, and
the predicted overthrow of the Dominican
Government has not taken place.
Again, our steamer hauled up at wharf
where the water is over twenty-five feet deep
at the lowest, and hard by where once was
moored the Dictator" the heaviest IRON
clad in our navy. And yet Senator Morrill,,
IN speech carefully prepared months before
hand, told our people that the boosted harbor
of SANTANA Bay was not deep enough to float
the "Tcnnesseen'
This is sample of Senatorial accuracy and
reliability in all matters where the evil genius
or party possesses the brain of men usually
sound and correct.
And yet, again: Here at Santo Domingo
City other popular ideas, propagated by Con-
gressional speeches, are found to have no
basis save i'll the distempered imaginations
Of political leaders.
AioW oIteI nave our people Deen assured
that our Executive was guilty Of maintaining
a fleet in these waters, at vast expense, with
out necessity, and "solely to maintain a
usurper in pOwer!"
How confidently, how earnestly, how fire.
quentiy have our orators asserted that the
Baez administration was kept in power
mainly by our naval forces, and that it could
not stand day after their withdrawal!
How have our orators Numbered against
this abuse of national power, this degrading
service Of our navy; and how have weak
kneed Republicans shaken their heads in dis
approval of the supposed error and wrong +!
But what is the truth about it? We must
have a squadron in the West Indies. The
Dominican ports are capacious and conve-
nient, and thither our ships frequently resort.
But at this time there is not one of our war
vessels in Dominican waters! The last one,
the Nantasket," sailed away some time
ago." to return no one knows exactly when.
But yet President Baez has not fallen nor
fled! He sits more firm in the saddle than
ever, and his administration has the conf
dence and the almost unanimous support of
the people
History will show, what all in these regions
admit, that the moral effect of the presence |
of our feet in Dominican and Haytan waters
has been blessed indeed, because it has helped