The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1906-03-15
FACTS ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO.
emiBarbarous but Simple and Chdke Peope-The Custom
Houses the Bone of Contention.
By WINTHROP PACKARD, In New England Magazine.

Whatever else may the outcome of
President Roosevelts Santo Domingo
policy, one result seems certain. That
Is, that the truth about the island will
come out. The place has been for half
q century breeding ground of strange
tales. Its people have been said to be
truculent and cruel, dangerous to all
strangers and foreigners; voodooism
and human sacrifice has been pictured
as rampant among savage crew OF
degenerates who practiced all the rites
of fetish worship that have come down
from aboriginal African ancestors: in
fact, the island has been described as
dangerous to visit, unhealthy to inhablt,
and peopled by a mongrel mixture of
races in whom there is no hope of good.
Two Republics.
Now. there is just enough truth at
the foundation of all this to uphold a
tottering structure of misstatement
which has endured for years. The facts
are entirely another matter. The island
IS Inhabited by two Republics one
that Of Santo Domingo, the other that
of Hayti. Mighty mountain ranges di-
vide the two, and the inhabitants have
but little intercourse with one another.
When you land in Santo Domingo and
try to trace the origin of the tales of
voodoo and fetish worship, cannibalism
and barbaric practices. you learn that
those things take place. indeed, but not
there. They prevail over the mountain
range TO the westward. among the
Haytians. l have not visited nor stud
led the HaytianS i have an idea. how
ever, that when you reach them you
find that the end of the rainbow with
its pot of gold is over on the next hill.
Probably the HaytianS can prove that
these things occur. indeed, but not
there-only over in Africa.
A Mixture of Races.
A mixture of races does not neces-
sarily mean degeneracy. The Saxons
grated their stock upon that Of the
Britons, the Normans came and mingled
with the two and the Celt adventured
among them ALL Yet the outcome of
1t all was the England which has ruled
the sea and shaped the forces Of civ
ilization-through various channels
sturdy, adventurous, ambitious, fearless,
intellectually dominant men. The bet
ter characteristics of each race seem to
have survived In the stock and welded
into a harmonious whole. That is to
say, the result is a race still, and a bet
ter one. not a nondescript nor q mon
grel. Things have happened otherwise
IN Santo Domingo. 1t had a race once.
a gentle people who thrived there in
peace. Then came the Spaniard, and
with unexampled cruelty and ferocity
wiped this race from the face of the
OdTtH. lAdleT CAME lIllieE tuc DuCCd-
neers and pirates who were the Off
scourings of Europe, and later still the
slave traders brought the negroes.
The Spaniards laid the foundation of
an old-world civilization deep in Santo
Domingo. They established cities. cut
roads through the tropical wilderness
and gave the island code of laws
which has prevailed in large measure
to the present day. They built churches
of great architectural beauty. some of
which have survived the decay Of the
centuries. Others are but crumbling
ruins. Could they have remained there.
their blood unmixed. 1T is easy to be-
Iieve that the island would have to-day
been civilized, a place of fair cities.
prosperous plantations and no political
problem for the United States or Ger
many or anybody else to grapple with.
A MOngrel Breed.
Unfortunately there were the ne
groes. They thrived and multiplied i'm