Evening star., 1925-05-31
HAITI SURVEY REVEALS
ISLANDS STRIKING GAINS
Rodenberg Confutes Critics of United
States Occupation-Shows Pros
perity and Freedom Grow.

ago there were less than half a dozen
automobiles in Haiti. Today there
are more than 1000 and every steam
er from the States is taking in an
increasing supply.
What l have said about the high
ways will illustrate the general con-
dition existing at the time of the oc-
cupation. The report made three
years ago to which I have referred
pointed out that about . per cent Of
the population represented the wealth
and culture. which was the governing
class. These were divided into two
factions, the outs" and the ''ins, -
the latter being protected by a sub
stantial army, without which no gov
ernment could exist. The peasant
class, 1t was pointed out, constituted
from % to 81 per cent of the popu-
lation. They can neither read nor
write. They have no conception of
government. They have been the
pawns of the governing class. Their
condition is truly pathetic. Naturally
generous and kind. with proper train
ing and education they can become
prosperous cultivators, capable of
guarding their own interests.
Property Confiscated.
At the time of the occupation their
animals and the products of their lit
tie gardens were continuously being
confiscated without compensation, and
when the women took their produce
to the markets in the cities and towns
they were never certain that the little
money they received for 1t would not
be taken from them. The Senate
committee, without intending it in a
critical spirit, went on to say that be-
fore the American intervention few
of the Haitians had ever seen a plow.
The peasant class had never seen and
did not know how to use a shovel.
At first when Shovels were given to
them for use they would take them to
a pile of gravel, pick the gravel up in
their hands, put 1t in the shovel, and
then carry It to the place where it
was intended to be<placed. When the
American marines began road build
ing in the island, a schooner with
road-building machinery was docked.
In the hold of the vessel were so
wheelbarrows. A captain of the ma
rineS in charge of the road building
sent the foreman, a Haitian, with SO
men to bring the wheelbarrows to the
place where the road building was in
progress. After a time he looked for
the men with the wheelbarrows. He
saw them carrying the wheelbarrows
on their heads instead Of wheeling
them.
The committee findings, however, do
not differ in any essential respect from
the reports of travellers who visited
the island from time to time follow
ing the expulsion of the French. The
English author, Anthony Trollope,
who was on the neighboring Island
Of Jamaica when Solouque, one of the
last "Emperors' landed there after
hasty flight from Port au Prince in
1859, gave a rather vivid description
of this royal parsonage and his realm
which, with many similar productions
from the pens of travellers, served to
make Haiti a forbidden country up
to the time Of the American occupa-
ton.
29 Rulers Since 1904.
Since 1904, when the whites were
massacred, there has been a dozen
constitutions and 30 chiefs of state
including Emperors, Kings, military
dictators and Presidents. Prior to the
present occupant. who has been the
only one to receive the friendly grasp
of his predecessor on assuming office
only one President completed his term
and voluntarily retired. Eighteen
were deposed by revolution and assassi-
nation and one committed suicide. The
present occupation resulted from the
following cablegram received by the
State Department from the American
legation at Port au Prince July %,
1915:
AT 1880 mob invaded French Iega-
ton, took out President, killed and