The Republican journal., 1896-04-16

way; so bad that there is no hone for her
except in being annexed to the United
otates, or to some other nearer and richer
power than Denmark. All over the is
lands are abandoned buildings and es-
tates' going rapidly to decay. The one
INDUSTRY has been cane culture, and the
people do not known how to engage in
anything else, even if they had the means
and energy to branch out in new lines.
Plantations that formerly yielded an an
nual profit on many thousands of dollars.
90 not now pay running expenses, their
owners say, because of the unreliable
character OF free negro labor and the
crushing competition of the beet root SUBJ
sldlzed sugar of Germany that has lately
sprung up; but probably not less among
the reasons are the absentee system of
ownership, lack of thrift in management
and extravagant modes of living. A good
many other of the West Indian islands
are committing the same disastrous mis-
take, that OF neglecting all other products
tor the production of sugar When a
drought or deluge or a blight comes
along, or when the market becomes over
stocked by somebody who can raise it
cheaper, the planters are in dire distress.
having nothing to fail back upon. With
view to make things easier for the peo-
pie of Santa Cruz, the Danish government
few years ago constructed a great cen
tral factory, with system OF pipes to
bring the cane juice thereto from the yari-
Gus plantations. But instead of helping
matters, King Christians attempted I'M
proyement has given rise to no end OF Ciissa-
tisfaction and several negro instructions,
There are many of these central factor
les Ill different parts of the West Indies,
(notably in Martinique, which at one time
had Is of them,) and they are conducted
much as cheese factories are in the United
States, fed by milk from the neighborng
farms. But in Santa Cruz the planters
complain that they were forced to join
the factory company, being in debt to the
government, owing to a series of bad
years, but that many of them had their
own mills and machinery and could make
larger profits, if any at all, by manufac-
turing the sugar themselves. The com
pany pays to each the value of five and
one half pounds OF sugar for 100 pounds
of cane, and the planters claim that is not
enough: while the government insists that
1T cannot pay more, as its machinery has
cost SO much. The new order of things
seem to have been bad, too, for the over
powering negro element, having thrown
thousands of them out of employment
and reduced the wages of the rest to ten
cents a day. and less than that in many
cases. AS ii natural consequence, innu-
merable tiny farms and sublettings have
sprung up all over the island, carried on
py the blacks, thus drawing labor from
the larger estates and rendering helpless
the few planters who were able to resist
the central factory scheme. The soil OF
Santa Cruz looks fertile enough and there
seems to be no lack of water; probably
nearly everything would grow here which
the people require, if intellgentIy cult
waited. AS a sample of former methods
when times We're flush, it may be men
toned that outside the towns all the fruit
trees were cut down, because they told
us as long as there was fruit in sight the
negroes would do nothing bur pick, lie
down and eat, and so, to remove tempta-
ton from their path, the planters deliber-
ately destroyed the trees.
FANNIE b. W ARD