The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-02
Colonization of the Tropics.


remain in the Philippines 10 engage in ag-
riculture. numbering and mining. and pre-
fer TO be mustered out of the service there
and 70 use their Communication of travel
pay home as capital 10 start them in bust
ness. Such a request is rather startling
in view Of the general belief that the eli
mate OF the Philippines is such that white
men cannot live there and retain their
health. 10 say nothing Of enduring hard
labor under the facilitating influence of
extreme feat associated with extreme hu-
nudity. The young fellows have certainly
had an opportunity 10 test their ability
TO withstand NE supposedly malignant
climate Influences under which they have
for many months been doing the hardest
kind of work unsheltered from the broil
ing sun. The very fact that their eX-
perience has not deferred them from wish
ing TO engage in active and laborious &C
equations in a country which, according TO
generally accepted opinion, is about as
unfit a place of residence for men of our
race as any on the face of the earth.
should induce one TO pause and reconsider
without prejudice th9y>question; Can
white men colonize the tropics"
That they can do so is exemplifed right
al our doors; for what are the Cubans but
the descendants Of Caucasian Spaniards?
Yet they have thrived in Cuba. and
though many of the res Snts of the ISL
and came of an ancestry that has lived
there continuously for four hundred years
they compare favorably in physique and
in mental qualities with the Spaniards OF
today. Many of the Dutch families of the
Moluccas have resided there continuously
for three hundred years. and they still
possess the fair compilations and robust
ness of form characteristic of their
TIL. .
physician. at Amboyna a German, assur-
ed Professor Alfred Russell Wallace. the
co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory
OF evolution, that the race is quite as pro-
life as in Europe. families Of ten or a
dozen children being not uncommon.
Says Professor Wallace in an article on
the subject in The Independent of the cur
rent week:
Perhaps the most conclusive example
is that of Queensland the climate OF
which is completely tropical; yet white
men work in every part of il. Whether
as gold miners, sheep shearers. sugar
workers or railway builders. there has
never been any complaint that white men
cannot work, while almost all the heavy
mechanical work of the country. engin-
eering of every kind, carpentering and all
of the various building trades and the
scores OF varied INDUSTRIES OF n ClNulLeu
community. are carried on by white work
men without any difficulty and with no
special effect on their general health. This
case really settles the question"
Professor Wallace. who has lived and
worked for twelve years in the Amazon
Valley and the Malay Archipelago, IN
hestaI .gly affirms that by far the larger
part of the great belt (about 1000 miles
wide) extending from twelve to fifteen de-
grees north and south OF the equator. is
not only well adapted for European col
onization in the true sense-that is for
permanent occupation by white men-but
IS also, with proper sanitary precautions,
the most healthy and enjoyable part OF
the world, and that In which the laborer
can obtain the maximum return with the
minimum toll. He insists that 2 certain
amount of work Is essential to the main
tensnce Of health in the tropics as we'll as
in higher ATTITUDES, and he cites numer-
Gus examples which came under his per-
sonal observation. II is a WE'LL known
fact that in Ceylon and India the men
who enjoy the best of health are the en-
thusiastic sportsmen who seize every OPP
portunity of getting away from civiliza-
ton. and who often submit themselves
TO privation, and always TO great bodily
fatigue.
It is necessary to differentiate between
the china te and the diseases of the trop-
les. The most deadly of the maladies
which now exist in many countries near
the equator are fevers but yellow fever,
which is at home from Vera Cruz to Rio
Janeiro, is not indigenous to those regions
It was brought over in the slave ships
from Africa, and exists only in places 10
which the slave trade formerly extended.
That 1t will yield to scientific treatment,
however. is proven by the fact that 1t has
been stamped out in Jamaica, which was
once quite as badly affected with the
scourge as is Cuba today. Leprosy is COM
monty regarded as Il disease peculiar 10
the tropics, yet ii formerly ravaged
southern Europe, and in our times it is
prevalent to such an extent in Sweden
that the establishment of leper colonies
In that country has been sanitary ne
cessity. The plague and other zymotic
diseases of India are in no way due 10 the
climate, since three centuries ago the
plague was as prevalent in EErope Gin
GLIDING EnglaId) as Ii is now in Hindo-
stan. According to Professor Wallace
swamps and marshes near the equator
are perfectly healthy so long as they are
left nearly in state Of nature-that IS
covered with a dense forest or other veg
citation. 1t is when extensively marshy
areas are cleared for cultivation. and for
half the year are dried up by the tropical
sun, that they become deadly. Il have
lived" saiys he, FOR months together in
or close 10 tropical swamps both in the
Amazon Valley. in Borneo and in the No
Iuccas, without a days Illness: but when
living in open, cultivated marshy districts
I almost invariably had malarial fever
though l believe the worst types Of these !
fevers are due to unwhoiesOme food. But
here again malaria was equally prevalent
in England less than two centuries ago"
To what an extent the so-called diseases
of the tropics are preventable and con-
trollable by proper sanitation IS shown by
The fact that the death rate among Euro
pean soldiers IN India has been reduced
from 90 per / 90 in 1858 TO about Is per in
1880 But for the fact that the super
stitIons and prejudices Of the native popu-
alton bar the way 20 proper sanitation
Bombay could probably be made as sa-
ubrious as Paris or London. There -
ground enough 10 warrant Te-exs nina /
ton OF the question Of the unhealthfu.-
less Of hot climates for white people;
and possibly the condition currently be- I
ieyed TO exist IS "a mythical as were The 4
creatures with which the navigators % /
he fifteenth century peopled the unknown 4
western ocean.
The notion that white men cannot work I
lrder an equatorial sun has no support 4
n fact Wherever the white man has 4
,olonized the --opics he has lsbored and 1
.hrived.
He na~ Half Dead
Not long ago aSTfsburg hfe Insurance /