Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-12-21
BENEVOLENT DEsPor1sM.
TFrom the :an Francisco Gail

from tue cau a EIanClStO Call
Ever since the opening of the discus
sion CT the acquisition of tropical pos
sessions, The Call has warned the coun-
try of the overshadowing Importance OF
the labor question.
White labor cannot exist in the tor
rid zone. What labor is done there
must be by the tropical races.
A further fact is made plain by his
tory and by current events. The trop-
ical races will not work, unless forced
to do do so. Nature presents no re-
sistance that must be overcome in or
der that man may live under vertical
sun. She supplies all his necessities
aud ministers to his physical wants
with lavish hand. Every country
that has owned land and exercised
sovsreignty in the tropics has secured g
gu us for commercial export by some
ivrln Vf forced labor.
Spain fell into inattention to the beet
use and development of her peninsular
territory, because it wss easier by
forced labor TO wiring revenues aud
compel commerce out OF her East and
Vest Indian tropical islands. After
centuries OF this policy her tropical pee
ule rose 10 revolt against being forced
tell under natural conditions that
made labor unnecessary for their OWE
existence.
As result of this revolt she hes lost
her possessions in the torrid zone, and
vii be driven now to exploit
aer home resources and 10 doubt
will be regenerateo, commercially aad
morally, ry the compulsory change.
But We are stepping iuto her shoes,
and as We do 1t our commerciAl classes
sre Flaming the popular fancy by al
Turing pictures Of yropical commerce to
come.
Neatly four centuries ago, when the
Pop8 divided the commerce OF the
newly discovered regions between Spain
sud Portugal, on the meridian OF no
variation CT tho magnetic Geedie, which
vas discovered by Vesco da Cana IL
his c:rcGmu57igstion Of Africa, those
t1o countries entertained precisely the
ame exalted onticip&tioDs winch arc
eo-aay riie throughout the Unit d
states. Immediately upon enteri' 6 up
on their torrd possessions they en-
countered physicjai conditions, which
ave not changed, chat required in
voluntary labor 10 produce the COM
merce they mad anticipated,
During the scores o! years gone by
siuce then the only surplus producing
labor in the tropics has been compelled
ov the lash, or by penal contract, or
some form of force. The Dutch are at
1t to-day in Java. England wss driven
6y Wilbsrforce TO abandon it in hes
Vest Indian islands, when she abel sh-
Sd slavery, ard Immediately their sur
plus production declined The same
story applies TO Haiti and San Domin-
20, when France aud Spain, respective
ly, were compelled to let go, and in
voluntary labor ceased within their
borders,
Recently, Professor Kidd and Mr..
Ireland have made personal survey Oh
The tropics, and unite in tbe conclusion
that their commerce depends on some
form OF involuntary servitude.
Kidd fells back ON the ancient doc
,rine that might makes right. AS the
temperate zone races cannot labor IL
the tropics, aud as the tropical races
will not labor voluntarily, he concludes
that, tropical commerce being desirable
to the nations OF the temperate zone,
they have the right to exercise over
labor 10 the tropics "a benevolent 6es
potism," as the Du.ch do il Java. Thls
means the reduction of tropical labor
TO condition OF involuntary serviiude.
Every physical and commercial fact
involved in the situation demonstrates
that, as we drive Spain ouc and enter
upon her possessions fpr the same pur-
pose that she had in acquiring them in
the fifteenth century, We must go, as
she did then, with the lash for the
back of labor in one hand and the de-
msnds of commercial ayarice In the
other. if we expect commerce that
will return to US the cost Of conqueS!
and of government.
The thirteenth amendment to the
constitution of the United States says;
nNeither slavery nor Involuntary serVl'
tude, except as punishment for CRIME
whereof the party snail ttSNs ooer- uuit
G ,nvicted, shall exist within the Unit q
States, or any place subject to their Ju'
risdictlor." -,
The benevolent despotism, by which
if is conceded we must force tropical
labor to produce surplus for con
merce, will directly violate the ooust.-
There is DO reasonable legal doubt
that the penal contracts under which
labor is forced in Hawaii to produce
surplus are obnoxious to the thirteenth
smendment. Nor is there much room
far doubt that if that labor contract
system cease under the jurisdiction o. o.
me United States, the commercs o. o.
Hawaii will decline as the Involuntary
servi.u6e of labor ceases.
The most profitable tropical posses.
sion OF Great Britain in this hemlspneas
is British Guiana, with ali area OF ooo ovei
loo. 600 square miles and less tnhn so ooV, =
600 inhabitau!s, and total trace o.
over 800, coo, 900, or nearly as mucn pa, d.
;he commerce Of the P9iiippInes' bu