The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-16
M%ARTINIQUE'S TROUBLES
FRENCH WEST INDIAN ISLAND
OvERRUN WITH SOCIALISTS.
The Black "Proletarians" Organized
Into a Political Party with the
View of Dominating Affairs.


Correspondence of the Associated Press.
FORT DE FRANCE, Martinique, Jan. 25.
The approach of the elections for the
counc general and the municipal coun-
ellis in each commune, or township, is ex-
citing apprehension in the minds of the
white colonists of trouble in the near fu-
ture. They are aware that the agitation
created among our negro population by the
uprising and the incendiary fires which oc-
Cured last April in Guadeloupe has not
subsidized. 1t is true that socialistic and
anarchistic ideas are Just as predominant
with the blacks in Martinique as they were
and still are in the neighboring island. But
the hatred of race between the whites and
our colored people is deeper in this colony.
The blacks have not succeeded yet in Mar
Unique, as In Guadeloupe, in securing a
majority, or at least the balance of power.
in the general and municipal councils. But
they are preparing themselves for it. and
the political supremacy, thank to their
crushing superiority in numbers. They
claim they were cheated the year before
last, when Messrs. Duqusnay and Denis
Guibert were elected members of the
French Chamber of Deputies, because M.
Guibert. according to them, has sided with
the r~eactionist and conservative party in
the French national legislative assembly.
They express great regret that Martinique
should not be represented there by a So
cialist negro like M. Legitimas, a deputy
from Guadeloupe, who publicly proclaimed
that nothing but a violent revolution could
ever improve the condition of the black
"proletarianS." whom he had organized as
a political party.
In several villages, and town.
ships cries of down with the whites were
heard all through the electoral campaign
last year. These demonstrations frightened
the white population, of course, which is
more than one hundred times less numer-
Gus than the colored one. and which feared
the effect of the moral influence which
would be exercised over the Martinique
blacks by the intense economic, social and
race hatred disorders prevailing in Guade-
loupe.
The colored population is far better
treated here in Martinique than in the
other French islands, but still they display
toward the whites the same secret hostil-
ity.
This island, one of the most fertile places
on the globe. is almost uncultivated. Even
the celebrated coffee, formerly exported, is
not produced at present in sufficient guam
tity for the islands consumption. The
blacks, too, often refuse to work regularly.
Still they are better paid than is generally
believed. especially since most of the In
dian coolies who had been brought here by
the largest planters have been sent back
to- their own country, owing to the COM
plants that their presence in Martinique
and Guadeloupe would lower the wages of
the black laborers. The latter receive
about three francs a day, and not one or
one and a half francs. as said by the So
cialist negro agitators. These, 1T is pointed
out, will soon be the real masters of this
colony. as they all are in Guadeloupe. The
are the only ones who have benefited by
the law proclaimed in France in 1S4S, after
the revolution and the establishment of
the republic-a law granting to the blacks
the right Of suffrage, for which they were
not clamorouS at that time. Ia TO
that law and TO the immense numerical SUI
periority of the negroes the whites become
daily more and more powerless in the ad-
ministration of the French colonies. and
the future for Martinique, as well as for
Guadeloupe, is far from bright.