Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-10

| completion of the work within the limits of
| the guaranty, the subrogation of the United
States to the rights of the first mortgage
bondholders for any amount it may have to
| pay, and in the meantime control of the
stock of the company as security against
m1smanagement and loss. I most sincerely
hope that neither party nor sectional lines
VII! be drawn upon this great American
project, go full of interest to the people of
| all our States, and so influential in its
effects upon the prestige and prosperity of
our common country.
The island of Navassa, in the West
Indian group, has, under the provisions of
little 72, of the revised statutes, been
recognized by the President as appertaining
| to the United States. 1t contains guano
deposits, is owned by the Navassa Phos-
phate Company and occupied solely by its
employees. In September. 1889, revolt
took place among the laborers, resulting in
the killing of some of the agents of the
company, caused as the laborers claimed, by
cruel treatment. These men were arrested
Baltimore, under Section 5576 of the statute
referred to, as if the offenses had been COM
mitted on board merchant vessel of the
United States on the high seas.
Death Sentences Dealt Out to Offenders.
came to me, such evidences of bad treatment
of the men that, in consideration of this and
of the fact that the men had no access to any
public officer or tribunal for protection or
redress of their wrongs, I commuted the
death sentences that had been passed by the
court upon three of them. In April last my
attention was again called to this island and
to the unregulated condition of things there
by letter from a colored laborer, who COM
planned that he was wrongfully detained
upon the island by the phosphate company
after the expiration of his contract of serv-
ice. A naval vessel was sent to examine
into the case of this man and generally into
the condition of things on the island. 1t
was found that the laborer referred to had
been detained beyond the contract limit and
among the laborers. A board of naval Off
GERS reported, among other things, as fol-
lows:
We would desire to state further that the
discipline maintained on the island seems to
be that of a convict establishment without
its comforts and cleanliness. and that, until
more attention is paid to the shipping of
1aborers, by placing it under Government
supervision to prevent misunderstanding
and Misrepresentation and until some amei-
ioration is shown in the treatment of the
laborers, these disorders will be of constant
occurrence.
Legislation on Labor Contracts.
recommend legislation that shall place
labor contracts upon this and other islands
having the relation that Navassa has to the
United States under the supervision of
court commissioner, and that shall provide,
at the expense of the owners, an officer to
reside upon the islands with power to Judge
and adjust disputes and to enforce just
and humane treatment of the employees. 1t
is inexcusable that American laborers should
be left within our own jurisdiction without
access to any Government officer or tribu-
nal for their protection and the redress of
their wrongs.
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