The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-12-06
A COMPLETE FAILURE.
Negroes in the West Indies
Cannot Govern Themselves.
For Mere Than fifty Years They Have
Enjoyed the Greatest Freedom, But
Have Made No Advance Social.
ly or Morally.

enjoyed the Greatest Freedom, But
Have Made No Advance Social.
" or Morally.
In the, last quarterly issue of the
American Statistical association Fred
eric L. Hoffman gives series of statis-
ticul tables bearing upon the social and
moral development of the negroes in
the West laiies. AS he points ont to
the students of the race problem in the
United States, the West Indies offer an
attractive field for observation and
study, for the reason that for more
than fifty years the negro has there en-
joyed those political and social oppor-
tunities which it is claimed are denied
him in this country. Thus, says the
Boston Herald, for more than half a
century, he has had there presented
the possibilities of progress and ad-
vanccnent in civilization, and consid-
ering that in 1884 those who We're in
strunental in bringing about cmanc;-
patton in the West Indian colonies of
Great Britain felt confident that the
change Tolld be of immense benefit to
the eolored people and to the world at
large, 1t is Interesting to see how far
these hopes have been verified by ex-
periencc.
Mr.. IIcfflnans tables include the
Leeward islands, the Barhadocs, Ber-
muda, the Bahamas, Trinidad, .lamai-
ca, British Honduras and British
Guiana. lie also has race tables as to
the population of Cuba and Porto Rico
From these it appears that. while the
negro race in the West Indies does not,
on the whole, greatly increase, the
white population is steadily diininish-
ing. For example, a hundred years ago
the white population of Jamiaca was
about 10 pr cent. of the entire popula-
tion, while it is now little less than 2
per cent. In the Leeward islands the
white population hundred years ago
was about per cent; it is nov about
4 per cent. In the Barbados the white
population a hundred years ago was
about 20 per cent, while at the present
time it is less than per cent. In some
of the other colonies the relative de-
cline is not so great, but the tendency
has been for the white race to disap-
pear, with the result that the colonies
have fallen more under the control of
the negro Inhabitants.
Contrasted with this change is that
presented by Cuba, where the white
population in 1870 amounted to about
40 per cent, and in 1890 to approximate.
ly 20 per cent, and Porto Rico, where
the white population in 1902 was 43 per
cent, and in 1890 63 per cent In other
words, in the two Spanish colonies
the white race. as in the United
States, has tended to increase at
faster ratio than the colored race. This
Mr.. Hoffman holds to be due to the de-
termined struggle that has been main
tained in the Spanish colonies by the
whites for political, as well as social,
supremacy, and that under such condi-
tions a race of inferior standing is not
able to hold its own. In the British
West Indies, on the other hand, the
struggle is hopeless ono. and hence
no effort was made to maintain it, as
caudency passing, with all that it inn
piled, into the hands of the colored pop
ulation.
The result of this does not seem to
have been specially advantageous. The
colored race has grown ia the West
Indies .at rapid rate. Possibly the
limitations of area and industrial op-
3rt apIties may have something to do
lga fhia hut the birth rate has not
teso specially high, and, what is quite
fiatgg..ll a factor in determining the
Z o%tn il numbers of a community, the
1853 ofnorgality has been exceptionally
.sia 0 chat the population has tended
ii si4rc CT the colonies to become al
t.l3s stationary. In the group of Lee
ward islands there are now fewer peo-
pie than there were century ago, and
Jamaica may be said to be about the
only island which has shown large in
crease III population, the number there
doubling in less than century. In
those instances where contrast is per,
lnissiblc it is found that the death rate
is much larger among the colorcd in
habitants of these colonies than it
is with the white population, state
ment that also holda true of Cuba,
where the death rate is high with both
races, but about Is per cent. higher
with the colored than with the white
race.
But the worst showing made in Mr..
Hoifman's tables of statistics is found
in those which relate to the moral con-
dition Of the people, for while the
statistical evidence shows that in the
matter Of education there is constant
as, for example, in
Jamaica the number of those able to
read and write over 4 years of age has
advanced in the last thirty years from
81 to So per cent. of the population, a
corresponding improvement does not
appear to have taken place in the moral
condition of the people. In the Barba-
does. 7G p@r cent. of the population is
uazlsg It'll. in Jamaica n per cent. and
in ,Eliniiad, excluding coolies from the
East Indies, nearly 50 per cent, while
in all these colonies more than 60 per
A L s--Al stN