The Coolidge examiner., 1931-06-05

homas, Virgin Islands.
arose from prolonged drought
and postwar hard times that were
not confined to the Virgin isles.
Conditions Improve.
During the last few years eco
nOmic conditions have become bet
ter, more shipping is putting in at
st. Thomas, and the newly-made
citizens are more cOntented SAM
tation has been greatly improved
by the American officials and has
shown results in q reduction of the
death rate from 35.4 to 191 per
thousand.
In November, 1917, soon after
they were taken over by the United
States. the American Virgin islands
had a population of slightly more
than 10000. This was not a great
deal over half the population in
1885. Nearly 93 per cent of the
inhabitants in 1917 were negroes
or mulattOes. A large proportion
of the few whites were Danes. The
present population is about 22.OOO
The inhabitants of the Virgin is
lands spent their first nine years
under the Stars and Stripes as
neither citizens nor aliens. In fact,
they were rather curious TO know
Just what their status was. In
1927 they were made full-fledged
citizens by act of congress.
Early this year the Virgin islands
were transferred from naval TO
civil rule One of the first pro-
posals of the new governor was to
construct winter resorts for Ameri-
can and European visitors on st.
Thomas and st. Croix, two of the
principal islands.
The islands climate is pleasant
the year round, and the beauty of
the islands is unsurpassed in the
whole sweep of the Windward
group. OF st. Croix one writer
says. Its wooded hills. cultivated
valleys and magnificent roads, lined
on either side for miles by beauti-
full coconut and mountain cabbage
palms. all help to justify its claim
to the title The Garden of the
West Indies -
Strategic Advantage.
From the days of the buccaneers
ST. Thomas strategic advantage
has been realized. for when the
Spanish Main was the happy hunt
ing ground of the gentlemen of the
Black Flag, this harbor was their
headquarters. Behind its outer
hills the pira'1 craft found shelter
from the open sea. and were well
screened from the sight of passing
ships until the moment came TO
pounce down upon them. In more
recent times it played the role of
safe harbOr for the thousands of
vessels bound from Europe TO Pan
anna and surrounding territory. or
vice versa With free port, where
repairs, ships stores, and coal
might be had, upon which there
had been no levy or tariff duties,
the shipping world found the har-
Dor of Charlotte Amalie an attrac-
tive waystation on most of its
Caribbean routes.
The result was that agriculture
in st. Thomas fell into decay, and
nearly all of the activities of the
islands population were devoted
70 the interests of its harbOr, and
one of the finest coaling stations
in the tropical world was estab-
lished there.
In addition TO the coaling station
there was a floating dry dock and
a marine slip where splendid re-
pair facilities were provided.
AS long as these facilities were
in demand st. Thomas was a fairly
prosperous island. Men and wom-
en- alike found it easy to get en-
ployment. at least for a part of
the time, at what was to them
living wage, which was one cent
per basket of coal, weighing from
s. to 100 pounds. Some carried
as many as two or three hundred
baskets during the four or five
hours required to coal ship.
When not doing this work, they
found considerable employment
discharging coal from freighters
which brought it to st. Thomas.
But then came The war in Europe
and all was changed. The steam
ships of Germany, which made con-
tinual use of the harbOr of st.
Thomas, were driven from the
seas, and where formerly all was
business and enterprise, only now
and then a ship found its way into
port, and the people of st. Thomas,
their agriculture neglected for
years. found themselves unable to
gain a living, either from the land
or from the sea.
The manufacture of bay rum, an
other flourishing industry under the
Dutch regime, was destroyed after
the islands passed into possession
of the United States. When the
Eighteenth amendment was extend
ed to the newly acquired territory
the making of this product was no
longer permitted.