The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-16
The White Mans Burden,
The Brown Mans Curse


crude blunders of hypocritical attempts
to civilize and plumber the weaker races
of the world are no where SO WILDLY
brought out in sharp relief as in the un-
happy history of the Samoan islands.
The white mans burden has been here
the brown mans curse.
Every island of the Pacific tells
similar wretched story. Civilization has
proved a Greek gift The missionary
and the beachcomber with bible and
with gin, have 1abored assiduously in
the same fertile vineyard, and while
souls may have been saved bodies have
been damned. In the track of the white
mans ships, as if from dragons teeth,
vice and pestilence have sprung up.
death walks in the wake of the white
winged boats
Islands which at the beginning of the
century teemed with happy life are now
'tenanted alone by countless graves and
ruined villages forgotten under
tangle of tropical verdue. In every
fair island of that broad ocean, the
white mans plague of gin and disease
is doing its deadly work of extermina-
ton. Fat graveyards are the mile
stones of civilization in Polynesia and
the dismal chant of the mourner marks
its path. Before the twentieth century
turns it's last year, the brown man of
the Pacific will be as extinct as the
1chthyosaurus Civilized out of exist
ence will be a fitting race epitaph.
One by one, the islands, the fairest in
creation, have been grabbed up by the
great powers under the pretense of a
God-given right to civlize the heather
with bibles and 13-inch shells. Imper-
ialism, the robbery Of the weak by the
strong, has received it's vindication
from fleets of bristling warships and
wherever the heavy hand of power has
been laid, a whitening, Egyptian blight
has fallen.
While the story of each Pacific island
tells the same pathetic tale, Samoa is
fortunate in having had as historian of
her disasters the peerless master of
pure English who made the beautiful
island of Upolu his home during the
last years of his life. He who would
uhdCi taiolIlSIS ioiioN 1tlS iiliiNeaSiSS
of the Samoan diplomatic muddle with
its condominium tripartite govern
ment, Berlin treaty, Malietoa Tanus,
Mataafa, Tamasee and the like, must
read Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Foot
note to History A fitting substitute
title would be: 1.-THE Seamy Side of
Imperialism
In it are exposed with merciless hu-
NOR the miserable little intrigues Of the
consurs, the fatuous stupidity of Off
cialsm, the complacent procrastinaton
of the three governing suzerains and
with a pen that warns to its work, he
paints the grievances of the patient,
long-suffering islanders at the hands of
the three greedy landgrabbers in the
name of civilization, Christianity and
dollars 1t is loving hand that traces
the characteristics of his island chill
dren, as he called them, portrays their
virtues and passes lightly, but without
condoning, over their faults and vices.
''They are" he says, easy, merry and
pleasure-loving; the gayest of the Poly
nesians Fine dress is a passion and
makes a Samoan festival a thing of
beauty. Song is almost ceaseless. The
boatman sings at the oar, the family at
evening worship. the girls at night in
great house and the workman at his
toll. No occasion is too small for the
poets and musicians; a death, a visit
the days news, the days pleasantly
will be set to rhyme and harmony. Song
goes hand in hand with the dance and
both shade into the drama
The form of society is patriarchal
and all goods are owned practically IN
common. Before the advent of the dol
lar-hunters the Samoans were happy
contented people.
III.
Then came the Germans and trouble
A big Hamburg trading company estab-
lished itself at Apia, backed by German
warships, and its power Zealously pro-
tected and pushed by the German con-
suls. Vast plantations were secured by
shameless methods. BY cajolery and
force signatures to blank deeds We're
obtained from the Samoan chiefs, lead
ing to endless disputes and litigation
On these plantations the laborers were
held in practical slavery. They were
mercilessly beaten on the least provo
cation and abuses sprang up, against
which even the German consuls in the
name of humanity were forced to pro
test. The Samoans had no rights thI
Germans felt bound to respect. Taxes
were wrung from the chiefs by threats
and the entire body of Samoan tradi.
ton, laws and etiquette ignored witt
stoid, Teutonic contempt.
American and English traders were
keen rivals of the big company anC
naturally took advantage of the ill-feel
ing engendered against the Germans
To crush out British and American
influence, to get absolute control of HI
isln Ins.s. -