Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1917 — COUNTRY'S NEW TERRITORY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COUNTRY'S NEW TERRITORY

THE American flag has recently been raised Over the Danish West Indian group of islands, the United States having agreed by treaty to pay the Danish government $25,000,000 for all of the holdings of the latter country in the West Indies.

On the map the West Indies are seen as a string of islands, beginning with the large ones of Cuba and Santo Domingo, thinning out in midoeean to a few almost invisible dots, and then emerging to the south again in the larger French and English islands. What we have bought from Denmark are about fifty of these little pinhead islands, writes Frederic J. Haskin. Only three of them are large enough to have names on the map, and the largest contains but 84 square miles. Insignificant, however, these islands are most interesting, and may become important. '

Two Embraced in the Virgin Group. St. Thomas and St. John belong to the Virgin group of islands, which was discovered by Columbus, as was also St. Croix. St. Thomas was settled by the Dutch, who left it for New York. Then the Danes took it, and the English took it away from the Danes several times, but always gave it back be-eause-they did not want-it? The Dutch and the English also squabbled in a small way over St. Croix; then the Spaniards got hold of it, only to be driven out by the French, who gave it to the Knights of Malta. They, being unable to make a living there, burned up their holdings and departed Denmark, thereupon got St. Croix for the same reason that she got St. Thomas, namely, because nobody else wanted It, She has been losing money on the Islands almost ever since; that $25,000,000 will be the first profit that Denmark, as a nation, has made out of her West Indian colonies in a long time. The history of our own relation to the islands has been much repeated of late. In 1865 Secretary of State Seward offered $7,500,000 for them, a vote was taken here and the people were almost unanimous for the transfer. The bill then died in the senate committee ou foreign relations. In 1902 we wasted an opportunity to buy the Islands for $5,000,000. In 1916 we jumped at the chance to buy them for $25,000,000, and now the money having been paid the islands are under the flag. The price comes to nearly S3OO an acre, as against 2 cents an acre which we paid for Alaska, 27 cents for the Philippines and about $35 for the Canal zone. Thus it is seen that colonies, like everything else, are going up in price. Island Littered With Old Relics.

This crude summary of the history of the Danish West Indies gives no Idea of their real story, which is filled with romance of the Spanish main, with pirates and privateers and doubloons and creole beauties. The Islands are littered with old cannon, ruined forts and all the other stage props of swashbuckling romance. Geologically, these islands are the tips of a badly swamped mountain range. St. Thomas juts suddenly out of the water, like a swimmer’s head. From its highest point you can see Porto Rico to the west and an amazing amount of ocean all around. There is practically no cultivation, because all the people make a living out of the harbor? Fire and hurricane have swept the Island almost clear of forest, but there is a low, dense growth of brush, which affords a shelter for wild goats and deer, while few cattle graze on the open, windswept mountain tops. The island is beautiful with a vivid, unexpected beauty—an ideal place to explore with a pony and a camera. And the bulk of it is now serving no other purpose than to delight an occasional wanderer with an eye for the picturesque. St. Croix, on -the other hand, is a rich island. It contains 84 square miles of territory, a large part of which is planted in sugar cane. One side of the island is flat, while a miniature mountain range borders the other, rising steeply out of the bright, tender green of the sugar fields, which reach clear down to the palm gfoves along the white beaches. This island has fine road? bordered with raws of royal palms, and It boasts no less than 20 automobiles. Long ago it was a favorite winter resort for Americans, and the islanders believe thaFlt is going to become popular with tour-

ists again. Land has already been bought for the erection of a large modern hotel. St. John Claims 900 Inhabitants. St. John contains about twenty square miles. It claims 900 inhabitants, but they are hard to find owing to the density of the jungle, the lack of roads and the fact that there is no town on the island. The other 47 islands which are Included in our purchase vary from such bits as Sall rock, which is a bare spire of granite that looks like a sail and affords a home for a few sea birds, to Buck island, which is several square miles in area, covered with dense grow’th, and full of wild pigeons, parrots and wild goats. Most of these small Islands, or keys, are uninhabited and many of them are practically never visited by men. Our purchase includes three principal cities and a few smaller villages. The most important of the cities is Charlotte Amalie, on this Island of St. Thomas. In the islands the town is called St. Thomas, Its Danish name almost never being heard. It has about 12,000 inhabitants, most of whom have negro blood, but It Is not a negro town in the sense that Port au Prince is. The typical St. Thomlan of the better class is a West Indian creole, and of a distinctive type. He has just enough negro blood to make his skin dark and his hair slightly kinky. He is Indolent and pleasure-loving, but intelligent and pretty well educated. Many of the leading merchants of St. Thomas are creoles, including the only millionaire to the inlands. These weH* to-do creoles have their children educated in Europe, and mingle with the Danish officials as social equals. Many of the young Danes have taken creole brides back to Denmark. Capital City Rated Beautiful. In St. Croix are Chrlstlansted, the capital, and Fredrlkstad, each having a population of between 4,000 and 5,000. Fredrlkstad is a flat, white, dusty town, swept by the wind from its open roadstead, and is neither picturesque nor interesting. Christiansted, on the other hand, is a beautiful tropical city, full of flowers and palms and picturesque old houses. It has a pretty little harbor choked with sand and mud. The bulk of the people in St. Croix are black negroes, while the dominant class are mostly Irishmen and Danes. From these facts, it will be seen that we have not bought a valuable piece of real estate, but the purchase seems to be amply justified. Whatever the value of the islands to us, our potential value to them is enormous. The people of the Danish West Indies are looking to us with faith and hope for many things, and the whole Caribbean world will watch our course there with keen and critical interest. Wherefore., Uncle Sam’s new islands are a more Important part of his domain than they appear on the map.