the killing of several thousand men, and the rape of women and girls,
appear as mere minor incidents in the great benevolent scheme of things.

The charge of inate unfitness for self government brought
against the Haitians embraces accusations ranging all the way from
illiteracy to cannibalism. Only the day before yesterday New York
papers carried a dispatch stating that a Haitian named Cadus Belgarde,
convicted by a military commission last February of murder and
cannibalism in connection with the sacrifice of a girl's life in a
voodoo performance, was released on order from the United States Navy
Department. It was on this Belgarde case that a new impetus was given
to the old propaganda of cannibalistic voodooism in Haiti. I have
good reasons to doubt that any of it was true. But even if it were,-
Here I am reminded of an observation made to me on this point by my
friend, Mr. Herbert J. Seligmann. Mr. Seligmann and I were in Haiti

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together; in fact, we fought, bled and died together in the campaign for publicity on Haitian conditions. Mr. Seligmann is also thoroughly familiar with the various phases of what is known as the Negro problem in America, as he has shown in his book, "The Negro Faces America," one of the very few scientific books ever written on the race question. Regarding the dispatch about Belgarde's release, Mr. Seligmann propounded to me the following question, - "Which is worse, to eat a human being without cooking him, as is alleged to be the custom in Haiti, or to cook a human being without eating him, as we know to be a custom in Mississippi?" I answered that I considered the utilitarian motive connected with the Haitian custom made it less reprehensible.

The reports of the inate unfitness of Haitians for self-government and self development emanate not from a thorough study but from a superficial observation of the Haitian people. The writer

or the traveller who goes to Haiti for "copy" is naturally attracted
by what is colorful, by what is exotic and bizarre. So, for instance,
when he reaches Port-au-Prince he stops around the waterfront, in the
market, in the dingy shops along the Rue d'la Republique, and in the
market places where little children of both sexes run around with
scanty or no clothing and the merchant women are jabbering away, and
there unlimbers his kodak and his notebook and gets the material for
his article or his book on Haiti. By this same method any writer
can prove any country or people to be whatever he wishes to prove
them. A writer could come to New York City and by writing nothing
but the truth and clipping the press with its daily accounts of hold-up
on the public streets, frequent murders, many of which remain mysteries
(one hundred of them in this year), graft and bribery in the most high

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places, violence, mobs, flaunting of courts, burning of human beings alive, and could write a story, true in all of its particulars, proving that life and property were not safe in New York and that the United States was not a civilized country.

I could take up the points one by one which are habitually put forward to prove the inate inferiority of the Haitians and of all other peoples who are the actual or contemplated victims of economic exploitation and show that it is all a matter of relativity. Somebody goes down to Haiti and because he finds it is different from New England or the Middle West he at once concludes that it is inferior. He sees the rural Haitian, for example, living in these curiously built cabins with their whitewashed or tinted walls and their thatched roofs, so well adapted to the needs of the Haitian, and our observer concludes that the Haitian is inerior because he does not live in a (board, painted)

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cottage with a tin roof and a mortgage on it. Or he sees the rustic
Haitian going barefoot and often hatless, and our observer concludes
that he would be far superior if he could be induced to purchase cheap
American patent leather shoes and derby hats. But I have not the time
to take up these points, as important as they are and as interesting
as they might be.

When the facts of the investigation which I made were published
in *The Nation* and reiterated by Senator Harding on the stump, Secretary
Daniels of the Navy and Secretary Colby of the Department of State at
once sprang to the defense of the government. Secretary Daniels, who
is a most exuberant person, so prone to indulge in characteristic, old-
fashioned southern bombast, indignantly denied that there was no truth
in the statement that more than three thousand Haitians had been killed

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by American marines, and he declared that the statement was a reflection and a libel on the Marine Corps and therefore an attack on American civilization, because the American marines represent American civilization. He ordered a report to be made by General Le Juene to cover the period of General Le Juene's command of the Marine Corps. General Le Juene made a report which was a complete whitewash, but his report was without value under any consideration because the period of his command of the Marine Corps dated back only to June 30 of the present year.

Later General Barnett's report came out and more than substantiated the charges that had been made. General Barnett's period of command over the Marines extended over the greater portion of the American Occupation. Secretary Daniels was again shocked by the

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Barnett report. The mathematicians in the Navy Department have since been busy shaving down the 3,250 "indiscriminate killings" given in this report, but with all the shaving down the number is still in the thousands; and as the mortalities among the American marines cannot be increased above thirteen, the discrepancy between the number of dead Haitians and dead Americans still presents a disconcerting contrast.

While Secretary Daniels' defense was rhetorical, Secretary Colby's defense was misleading. Secretary Colby in a formal statement set up that we went in on Haiti's invitation; the position of Haiti with her foreign creditors; the 'eminent danger of the seizure of the black republic by some European power; the landing of French troops prior to the landing of American forces. He also dwelt upon the

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benevolent intentions of the United States and denounced the whole expose as a political campaign manoeuvre.

We did not go in by invitation. Haiti resisted to the limit of her powers. Of course, there is a so-called treaty which was ratified by both governments, but it must be remembered that Haiti signed literally at the point of a pistol. While this treaty which was ratified September 16, 1915, was being negotiated, President Dartiguenave issued a proclamation, the first and last paragraphs of which read as follows:

"Haitians! At the very moment when the Government, engaged in negotians to settle the question of the presence of American military forces on Haitian territory, was looking forward to a, prompt solution in accordance with law and justice, it finds itself faced with the simple seizure of possession of the customs administration of the capital."

"Haitians! In this agonizing situation, more than tragic for every truly Haitian soul, the Government, which intends

to preserve full national sovereignty, will be able to
maintain the necessary resolution only if all are united
in exercising their intelligence and energy with it in the
present task of saving the nation."

As to Haiti's position with her creditors, the fact is that
in all her 116 years of national independence she never defaulted
in any payment of her foreign debt until after and during the
American Occupation.

The implication that there was danger of seizure of the
black republic by some European power is absurd. The United States
intervened in Haiti in July, 1915. We can all remember how busy
Germany, England, France and Italy were at that particular time -
too busy to bother with anything on this side of the Atlantic.
When Mr. Colby stated that the French government had already landed
troops in Haiti, it was either through ignorance or an attempt to

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deceive the American public.

A few hours prior to the landing of American forces a French gunboat at Port-au-Prince landed eight sailors as a legation guard. The landing of legation guards by the great powers when there is any disturbance ashore in the republics around the Caribbean has come to be an accepted international law although it has no foundation other than that these countries cannot prevent it. The fact is that nearly a year before forcible intervention on the part of the United States, this government was seeking to compel Haiti to submit to peaceable intervention. Towards the close of 1914 the United States notified the government of Haiti that it was disposed to recognize the newly elected President, Theodore Davilmar, as soon as the Haitian government would sign x "satisfactory protocols" relative to a convention with the United States on the model of the one between the

United States and Santo Domingo. The Haitian government refused to consider the proposition. Shortly afterwards this government sent to Haiti the Ford Mission for the purpose of negotiating the convention. The Haitian government declined to discuss the matter with the Ford Mission because that Mission did not have the proper powers. Finally, in May the United States sent to Haiti the Fuller Mission with full powers and with instructions to recognize the Haitian government when an acceptable convention was agreed upon. This convention was being discussed by the two governments through an interchange of diplomatic communications when there occurred the coup d'état which overthrew President Davilmar and resulted in his death and the massacre of a number of political prisoners in the jail at Port-au-Prince. The President was killed on the morning of July 27, 1915.

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President Guillaume was killed on the next morning. That afternoon American forces were landed at Port-au-Prince from the United States warship Washington and we have been there ever since.

From the very first the attitude of the Occupation has been that it was dealing with conquered territoty. All the powers of the Haitian government, military and civil, were at once seized. A convention demanding more than was ever contemplated by diplomatic means, a convention in which the Haitian government virtually foreswore its independence, was forced upon the republic. This was accomplished by September 16, 1915, that is, a month and a half after the landing of our forces; and although the terms of this convention provided for the administration of Haitian customs by American civilians and officials, all the principal custom houses of the country had been set

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seized by military force and placed in charge of American naval officers before the end of August. The disposition of the funds collected during this period is still a question concerning which the established censorship in Haiti allows no discussion.

But even this convention in which the fourteen articles are taken up with obligations assumed by Haiti and one article is devoted to terms made by the United States, was not found adequate for the accomplishment of all our benevolent purposes. It was decided that Haiti must have a new constitution. So a new constitution, the Franklin D. Roosevelt version, was placed before the Haitian Assembly with orders that it be ratified without delay and without reservations. The Assembly balked and as a result, it was dissolved by actual military force and the doors of the Chamber were locked. There has been no

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constitutional Haitian legislative body since that time.

It was in this manner that the United States government, under an administration that has loudly proclaimed democracy and self-determination and the rights of small nations, seized a neighborly and friendly nation, one in which no American citizen has ever been killed or a dollar's worth of American property harmed - with less justification than Austria's invasion of Serbia or Germany's rape of Belgium, without any other warrant than the one "might makes right."

The *New York Evening Post*, in an editorial criticism of my articles in *The Nation* said that evidently Mr. Johnson was not aware of the fact that there was such a thing as the Monroe Doctrine. I replied to the editor in a letter that I was aware of the existence of the Monroe Doctrine but had a hazy sort of notion that its purpose was

the mountains and armed themselves. These are the men who are the bandits; these are the men to hunt down whom has become the duty and the sport of American marines. These men are not bandits; they are engaged in a valiant though futile attempt to free their country from the invader. The American of the Revolution would not have termed them bandits but would have called them patriots. And, speaking of banditry, there would not be as much banditry in Haiti in ten years as there occurs on the public streets in New York City in ten days. An American, head of a large concern in Port-au-Prince, told me that for years the merchants have, in order to save exorbitant bank charges, transferred sums of money from one city to another by messenger or mule. These messengers often carry sums ranging from ten thousand to a hundred thousand dollars, and he said to me that

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not a single dollar has as yet been lost by highway robbery.

Some of us are naturally shocked at these stories of atrocities and brutalities that have come out of Haiti. I shall not go into these in detail. When I first began to talk about Haitian conditions I had to go into detail because many of these atrocities were unbelievable and I had to prove them all. But since the Barnett report and the incidents that have trickled through from the Naval Court of Inquiry, it is hardly necessary. The knowledge which I gained about atrocities came not only from Haitians but from American marines. The marines talked freely about what they "did" to Haitians in the outlying districts.

Cite: Instance of Captain of Marines story of "caco hunt."

_Cite:_ Instance of Captain of Marines' treatment of Haitian,
member of Assembly

_Cite:_ Diagnosis of Haitian situation by marine officer.

But, granted the conditions in Haiti, that is, the forcible
military seizure and the maintenance of political domination by
force of arms, these atrocities are natural sequences.