The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-08
DESERVING WEST INDIES
PICK or THE YOUNG PEOPLE
 COMING TO THIS COUNTRY.
Growing Proverty of Islands offers No Future for Them at Home. They Arrive Here Penniless of-
 ten and as . Rule Do We'll.

While he was ariding through West
 Indian village the other day. an American
 tourist stopped to take drink and have
 . chat with the natives. School was just
 beine 6isnissse.4 and the boys crowded around him. The American asked q few of them what they were going to do when they grew up. Without an exception they
 replied:
 sGoins to Ainerica. sir, as soon as ever can get enough money for the passage.
 That's the place where West Indians get on. for there's no room for them to go ahead here.". 9gf8oJ
 The tourist made further inquiries
 among all the classes of people. white
 and black, and found the same story ev- anywhere. Every family had a son or daughter in the States. or one saving up money with the idea of going there and making a fortune.
 There are large British West Indian colonies in Boston, New York. Philadel- phia. New Orleans, Newport News. Bal tmore and other cities along the Atlan- tic seaboard. They cling together. and
 make a point of hslntihg up new arrivals from the West Indies and helping them
 to find their footing among . strange peo-
 pie in a strange land. They retain a feeling of loyalty and affection toward their native country.
 Rarely does a British, Danish, Dutch or French West Indian take out naturalixa- tion papers and 6 become an American
 citizen, however long he may dwell in
 this country. In that respect they differ most from other immigrants.
 When they gather together. as they often do, on festive occasions. it is to
 celebrate one of their own national hoi-
 idays and pay honor to their own flag land their own q0fonarch. But. though they thus decline to be a,ssimiiated, they esteem American Institutions and form an excellent element in any community fin which they settle.
 Usually they come to this country poor. Many . young man arrives at Roston or dollars in his pocket and not the slight est notion of what he is going to do. or where he is going to look for job. West Indian immigrants are incredibly reckless. They will throw up a good
 job in Barbados, Jamaica or Antigua, spend almost their last cent buying first class steamship tickets, and land in America with wife and family. but
 neither money nor prospects. Yet, soine- how or other, they always make good. When I arrived in this country" said Jamaican. T was a youngster of IS, who had never seen a big town or city. had just g in my pocket and my chum who came with me. had A
 Boston scared us at first it was go large and so full of people; but some West Indian friends took us in hand. and we both got places as clerks In bus
 mess Offices the first day we looked for work. It was hard for the tive of os to live on s until our first pay day came around, but we managed it. and ever since then we have both gone ahead steadily. B M are glad to employ British West Indians.
 They are well educated, trained to respon-
 sibility from earliest youth, intent or making their way, and familiar, of course, with West Indian products and require ments It Is true, they don't know many of the things that every American clerk
 knows, but then they know many things that no American clerk knows, and that more than compensates, for the em- ployer's point of view. "I have followed the careers of hundreds of West Indians who have come over here, and l have known very few of them to fail and go back home. Those few have made the big mistake of getting remit tanees from home. fftlF.sr
 q have known young West Indians who tramped the streets, worthless and pennt-
 less and nearly starving, while their fa-
 thers owned big plantations and employ ed hundreds of negro and coolie laborerg.
 letter would have. brought them ali the
 money they wanted, but they were too
 proud to ask for help. e s &
 They wrote home cheerfulIy, and never
 said a word about their struggles until
 they had made good Such fellows as
 those are bound to make good in any American city" t.E rft
 Boston contains the largest West Indian colony in America. There are nearly four thousand West indians there, mostly
 Jamaicans. Many of them are engaged In the banana trade, of which Boston Is the American headquarters and Jamaica the tropical centre.
 In New York there are probably 3,00C West Indians, and one street turning of from the lower part of Ninth Avenue is almost entirely inhabited by Jamaican ne- groes. ..4. -- tlt
 In Philadelphia. according to a Barba- dian who lives there, the West Indians
 nNmber nearly 2,5OO. and occupy many
 leading places in the world of commerce and industry. .
 From all accounts,' said this Barba-
 dian, who is in a bag way of business, "the exodus from the British West Indies Is going to increase. Indeed, It is in-
 creasing all the time.
 ''The growing poverty of the islands Is
 making it impossible to go ahead there. however shrewd one may he, and natur-
 ally all the bright. enterprising young men come here. The cost is much less than that of going to the mother country. and every West Indian Is firmly convinced that there are plenty of dollars to be
 picked up here, whiie he is dubious about England. f a&
 Look at this paper" he continued, picking up a recent copy of The Standard, a newspaper of Antigua. British. West In-
 dies. See what 1t says about The mat ter,' and he read as follows:
 'The number of those who have left for and those who contemplate going to the United States, of the pick of the St. Kitts
 and Ant qua young people of both sexes some of them in the government service, tools suggestive of rats leaving sink
 ing ship to escape peril.
 Really. the situation is becoming se- rious. If the immigration were confined
 10 our ne'er do-wells, it might be thought
 mercy that they should leave their country for their county's good. but.
 unfol tunately, the majority of this class
 remain. and as a consequence the dif1i-
 culty in procuring the services of com potent. trustworthy young men to III
 such places as clerks fin the vaIious lines
 of trade. and of workmen in the several
 crafas, is becoming acute. The dregs
 remain, from which little or no good can
 by any process of squeezing be extracted. -