Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-06-25
THE LADRONE ISLAM
A Possession That May Come Along With
the Philippines.
Resources Are Considerable, but the
Natives Are n Lazy and
Shiftless Lot.

From the st. Louis Globe Democrat
The statement that the cruiser Charles
ton will stop at the Ladrone or Marianne
Islands on her way to the Philippines and
take possession of them in the name of the
United States government is not confirmed
at Washington. but, as the group lies d.
rectly in the way of our ship, 1t is more
than likely that the report is true.
The Ladrone group comprises about
twenty islands. only five or six of which
are inhabited, the rest being mere dots on
the ocean, the tips of volcanoes which have
sunk beneath the the crust of the
earth at this point subsidized The principal
Islands Of the group are Guahan, Kota,
Agujan, Saypan and TInian; but the larg-
est, Guahan which mas an area of only 200
square miles, forms nearly one-half the
land area of the entire group. Lying as
they do, almost directly under the equa-
tor. they have every variety of tropical
product. and under proper conditions their
population might become wealthy from
agriculture alone. for finer cotton, cof-
fee sugar or tobacco can be grown in the
world than raised in the Ladrone Is
lands, but the curse of Spanish Iule has
bhghted every industry. The people labor
no more than they obliged to. and in
the tropics no one is really compelled to
work. for an abundant supply of food grows
without cultivation. and clothing and shell
ter are almost unnecessary.
The present islanders are mostly de-
scendant5 of settlers from Mexico or from
the Philippine Islands. The people do not
differ materially from the natives of tho
philippines. and although the islands have
seI eral good hal bors. the Spaniards have
done little or nothing for their improve
ment The most considerable town any
of the group is Saypan, on the island of
the same name, the houses of which, like
most of those in the South Sea Islands,
are elevated on piles from two to four feet
above the ground. There are few Spanish
settlers on the islands. and the hol1 of
Spain upon the group has been for the
most part nomiI al.
1t Is a singular fact, discovered by An
son, that there are evidences on several
of the Islands of a former civilization. Cy-
ciopean ruins exist. the architecture and d.
mansions of the stones closely resembling
the great ruins found in the islands of the
Creek archipelago. These lonely isles must
therefore at one time, have been seat of
civilization. Perhaps it was before they
became islands, for the Ladrone Islands
are the remains of a mountain chain which
traverses the Pacific from north to south.
tered groups which here and there dot the
surface of the sea.
To the United States the value of the
Islands is at present principally military as
furnishing harbors and coaling stations
but under an enlightened government there
seems to be no reason to doubt that with
p1 oper cultivation the cotton of the islands
would equal that produced along the cost
OIL south Carolina, the sugar would rival
that of Cuba and Porto Rico and 1t is said
that the tobacco of the LadroneS has a
l1aVor equal to that of Vuelta Abajo Val
ley. ANY development within the limits Of
climate and soil is possible under q civil
iZed government and the Ladrones may
nave before them a future as great as that
which lies before Porto Rico