New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-04-20
STRANGE THINGS IN GUAM.

Astronomers are getting ready to send out eX
petitions at great expense of time and labor TO
observe the solar eclipse in various more or less
remote spots of the world. This phenomenon
lasts only minute or two, but they consider
themselves well repaid if they get an unobstruct-
ed view of what happens in that brief space of
time There is phenomenon now to be noted
in the South Pacific Ocean, however, that would
seem equally to repay the immediate dispatch
Of squad of scientific Observers for it may
not last much longer than the coming obscura-
ton of the after it becomes generally
known in the centres of civilization The OBJ
servers needed are political economists and
sociologists, and the phenomenon to be viewed
is the state Of affairs now existing in the island
of Guam We published an interesting account
of it In last Sundays Illustrated Supplement-, in
a letter from Lieutenant Stafford. T. s. n, who
has been Vice-GOvernor of the island
According 10 his account. Guam Is one of
those spots of virgin soil In the economic world
such as exist in very few places the earth
to-day. Guam, in fact, seems TO be at the an
upodes In more than the geographical sense
The political economists used to conjecture
remote island. cut off from the network of a
highly complex civilization, its stresses and
strains, and imagine what the inhabitants
would do and what sort of development would
take place there Lieutenant Stafford leads rs to
believe that if they quick about it they can
see in Guam something like an actual realiza-
ton of this iridescent dream
In his simple but startling phrase everybody
in Guam is rich. Everybody owns land and
everybody gets n good living from ii by cult
waiting it. Nobody wants to work for anybody
else because he has all he can do working for
himself There are no captains of industry"
and no walking delegates; no inuuitous trusts
and no labor unions. There are therefore, ap-
parently no strikes and no lockOuts-no labor
problem" at all, in the sinister sense in which
we hear of il sometimes nearer home. There is
no conflict between capital and labor, because
every man Is at once his own capitalist and his
only hired man. If anybody thought of a con-
fict he could be much more easily convinced of
the common interests of capital and labor than
some of his contemporaries in this part of the
world. No set of farmers finds IT necessary
or desirable to crush any other set-thpy do not
even compete with each other, and hence. as
there is no concentration of executive function
saving of superfiuous salaries it NAV be
feared that there is little of that economy of
operation that enables the payment of big diyi-
dends and the consequent diffusion of prosper
ity. 1t may also be doubted whether there il
any just conception of the right of labor" to
fellows from earning n living when it chooses
not to, and TO show sympathy with the Oh
pressed by putting all the rest of the community
to loss, discomfort and danger
1t Is only just now that these people in Guam
have had any taxes to speak of; having discov-
cred that taxes are for the benefit of the com
munty lin Guam they actually approve of
them. Nobody wants any money; they have
little more Use for il than Robinson Crusoe had
for there Is effective demand" for what
people do not raise themselves. You have TO
beg people to sell you things" as Lieutenant
Stafford puts it; and ii is difficult at that for
apart from tobacco, they can only exchange
their products for something else they do not
want. We are glad TO hear about that tobacco,
for it brings little nearer to real civilization
again.
The economist will be relieved. however to
learn also that these people do have some of the
properties of civilized man. There are some
who have tried TO encroach upon the land Of
their neighbors, and have had to be restrained
therefrom by the strong hand Of the law Also