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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 6 -1 9 ,4 4 7 KRUVANT, William Jay, 1945- SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS; AN HISTORICAL MATERIALIST APPROACH. The American University, Ph.D., 1976 Economics, general
Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 43106
0 1976
WILLIAM JAY KRUVANT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS: AN HISTORICAL MATERIALIST APPROACH
by
William J. Kruvant
Submitted to the
Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Signatures of Committee:
Chairman ;
Dean of the Colleg^ jV
Date :I(q 1975
The American University Washington, D.C.
THE AMERICM UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 6'/ 7 <
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables...... i
Preface...... iii
Introduction ...... v Chapter I. ON HISTORICAL MATERIALISM...... 1
General Explanation of the Meaning of Historical Materialism Historical Materialism as a Method Notes on Some Common Misunderstandings and Dogmatisms Surrounding Historical Materialism Further Specification of the Operational Model: The Stop-Action Method II. THE ISLAND BACKGROUND: SUGAR AND TRADE; SLAVERY AND FREEDOM TO 1 9 3 1 ...... 79 Danish Rule Transfer and Navy Rule
III. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IN 1931: STATE OF THE SOCIETY...... 128
Recapitulation of the Stsp-Action Method The Situation in 1931 IV. DEPRESSION - WAR - STAGNATION...... 160
The Economy and Class Structure During the Depression The Organic Act and Political Change The War and After
V. CULTURE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY TO THE 1950's 206
Some Preliminary Considerations Cultural Manifestations Mass Psychology
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VI. 1954-1961, GETTING SET FOR GROWTH...... 228
Constitutional Changes: Revision of the Organic Act of 1936 Economic Evolution to 1961
VII. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IN 1961: STATE OF THE SOCIETY...... 254
Stop-Action Analysis
VIII. 1961-1971: DEVELOPMENT DECADE ...... 297
Evolution in the Economy The Economic Dominance of the Continentals Continentals, Natives and Aliens Politics Government and Business
IX. CULTURE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY1970 .... 399
General Continuity in These Areas The Specifics of Continuity and Change Cultural Issues and Their Relation to Development
X. CONCLUSION...... 429
APPENDIX...... A-1
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... B-1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES
Table Page 1. Industries of Persons 10 Years and Older, 1917 and 1930 ...... 137
2. Number of Farms and Acreage in Farms - St. Croix, 1917 and 1930 ...... 139
3. Number and Acreage of Farms - St. Croix, 1930-1960 ...... 167
4. Industry of Employed Persons, 1930, 1940 and 1950 ...... 173
5. Occupation of Employed Persons, 1940 and 1950 174
6. Income of Persons in 1949 ...... 176
7. Income Reported - Number of Families Reporting 197
8. Tourist Arrivals in the Virgin Islands .... 239
9. Occupation of Employed Persons - 1950 and 1960 243
10. Industry of Employed Persons - 1950 and 1960 . 244
11. Wages in the Virgin and the U.S. Mainland, 1950 - 1960 ...... 246
12. Major Industries and Occupations : Number of Participants, St. Croix, 1950 and 1960 . . . 250
13. Population By Island and By Race, 1930-1960 . . 255
14. Income of Persons, 1949 and 1959 ...... 257
15. Cumulative Distribution of Income of Persons, 1949 and 1959 ...... 278
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table Page 16. Occupation of Employed Persons, 1950 and 1960 264
17. Covered Employment, December 1962 ...... 265
18. Population in 1960 and 1970 by Race and by Island...... 298
19. Income of Families and Unrelated Individuals by Race, 1959 and 1969 ......
20. Employment from 1940 to 1970 by Industry and Occupation - In Percent...... 312
21. Total Covered Employment, December, 1962 - December, 1969, All Islands ...... 314
22. V.I. Employer Index, 1970 - All Firms with Fifty or More Employees...... 317
23. School Enrollment and Budget, 1954-1970 .... 323
24. Occupation of Employed, 1970 ...... 328
25. Occupations of Employed, 1970, In Percent . . . 330
26. Job Placements of the Virgin Islands Employment Service...... 342
27. Zoning Decisions of the Virgin Islands Planning B o a r d ...... 377
28. Financial and Employment Characteristics of Tax Exempt Frims, 1965-1970 ...... 382
Appendix Table 1. Revenues and Expenditures of the Virgin Islands Government, 1958-1970 ...... A-1
Appendix Table 2. Population of the Virgin Islands of the U.S., 1773 to 1970, By Ra c e ...... A-2
Appendix Table 3. Characteristics of Housing in the Virgin Islands, 1960 ...... A-3
Appendix Table 4. Number of Farms, Acreage in Farms and Sugarcane Production Data - St. Croix - 1950 to 1964 ...... A-4
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE
This preface is being written, as I suppose most prefaces are, at the very end of the dissertation writing
process. This dissertation was planned from the beginning as part of my rather unorthodox education in economics.
I viewed it then and now as an integral part of that pro cess. It is not the end of anything. Rather, it was and is the first time I have been able to devote myself to a really comprehensive study using what I have felt for some
time to be the most useful approach to understanding social development. That approach is historical materialism, the Marxian method of social inquiry.
I do not know if this study can truly be called a contribution to the understanding of social development.
If it proves to be helpful to others in either political
or purely scientific-scholarly areas, I will be gratified. I must say, however, that as an educational experience it has been the highpoint of my graduate education and so to me it has been a success. The people of the Department of Economics of The American University have been truly essential in enabling me to pursue my interests within the field. I believe that I received superior education in my years as a graduate
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. student and I also honestly believe that it would not have been possible for me to have had similar experiences or to have written this dissertation in many - if any- univer
sities in this country. More specifically, I cannot easily express the extent of my gratitude for the guidance
and intellectual comradeship of Charles Wilber, the chair man of my dissertation committee, colleague in the study
of philosophy and methodology, and friend. Without his combination of criticism and consideration, I certainly would not have completed this project.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to Howard Wachtel
and James Weaver who were both readers of this study and
have also played central roles in my education. I hope our work together in Political Economy has been useful to them; it has been crucial to my intellectual evolution.
I would also like to thank the National Science Foundation for its travel grant (GS-30950) which made my field work in the Virgin Islands possible. I would also
like to thank Cathi Rodriques for her incredibly competent typing.
Finally, I want to recognize the contribution of
Charito Kruvant to this product. Most of all, she put up with some serious problems I had during the gestation of
this study. She encouraged me when I needed it and repri
manded me when I needed a good rap on the knuckles. I only hope I can do the same when she comes to her dissertation.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION
This dissertation, although rather unorthodox in content and method, is traditional in form and goal. The
form is that of theory and case-study and the goal is to use the approach developed in the theoretical section to
understand the case-study material. In this dissertation the case-study is socio-economic development in the U.S. Virgin Islands with emphasis on the post-1931 period.
The content of this research is socio-economic development in the U.S. Virgins. This inelegant hyphenated word reveals something basic in the way this writer views
what economists usually call "economic development" and sociologists call "social change". This writer feels
strongly that when investigating the evolution of either whole or substantial parts of societies the two kinds of
change must be considered simultaneously and in all their many interrelations. Stated in this simple way, most
social scientists would nod in agreement and then go right back to their narrow particularistic studies. For better
or worse, we have chosen to take this proposition seriously and conduct as comprehensive an investigation into the
socio-economic evolution of these islands as our talents permit.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. We have also taken this broader approach for an other reason. The method of historical materialism which
is utilized in this study requires such a broad approach. This is because historical materialism was formulated
specifically to understand the general process of social development. Thus, there is a unity of interest between
this writer and the chosen method - a unity of interest which is quite conscious.
The study attempted here, then, is simple and com plex at the same time. The simple aspect is that a
definite and more-or-less well developed approach - historical materialism - will be used to illuminate and explain the development of a small society in a definite
historical period. The complex parts of the effort are two. One is to distill out of the historical materialist
tradition a method for the study of social change which is useful in general and also useful for the study of the U.S.
Virgin Islands. The other complex aspect of the research
will be to apply this method of investigation to a very wide array of phenomena in the economic, social, political, cultural and psychological realms.
I want to make clear that the time period covered in this study ends in 1970-1971. The last three years,
which have been marked by a large - for such a small com munity - number of murders and other violent incidents is consequently not included. There are several reasons for
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ending in 1971. First of all, such recent happenings are
necessarily difficult to fully disentangle and understand. More important, however, is the fact that my field re
search in the Islands took place in January and February, 1972 so I was not able to gauge the local opinions and reactions to events yet to take place. I have tried to
make clear in the body of the study that the Virgin Islands developments are not easily related to mainland develop ments. More specifically, questions of class, race and
culture differ significantly from the mainland scene.
These facts make it particularly difficult to comment on what is undoubtedly an extremely fluid local dynamic without firsthand examination and investigation of the particular incidents and their relationships to the
rapidly changing social, economic and cultural scene. About the order of chapters ; it is basically chronological following Chapter I which is a review of the literature on historical materialsim, the construc
tion of a historical materialist model for use in the case
study, and a few comments on the controversies which have surrounded historical materialism in the past. Chapter II
reviews the Danish background and the first fourteen years
of American rule. Chapter III is the first static ("stop- action") treatment ; a part of the method used in this study
to "freeze" the society at a particular date to examine
its structure in detail. This "stop-action" method is
vii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. explained at length in Chapter I. Chapter IV, "Depres sion - War - Stagnation", covers the period from 1931 to
1954. Chapter V then breaks the chronological pattern with a discussion of cultural and mass psychological
development up to the 1950's from the historical mate rialist point of view ("Culture and Social Psychology to
the 1950's"). Chapter VI resumes the chronology by
covering the 1954-1961 period called "Getting Set for
Growth", while Chapter VII is a "stop-action" analysis
for 1961. Chapter VIII treats the 1960's - "Development
Decade" - and Chapter IX charts the effects of growth by examining the cultural and mass psychological state of the society in 1970. Chapter X evaluates the previous
work as a whole and gives the author's views on the worth of the study.
A few comments are in order to help the reader
through what may be rather unfamiliar material. There are three American Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St, John. The people of each island are called St.
Thomians (pronounced "toemians"), St. Johnians and Crucians (pronounced "crewshans"). Only St. Thomas and
St. Croix are analyzed here because St. John has not been
economically significant since its economy was destroyed in the slave revolt of 1733. There are also severe con straints on economic development in St. John since about two-thirds of it was turned into a national park in the 1950's. viii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. There are a few linguistic conventions the reader
should also be aware of. Although the word "native" is generally considered racist and insulting by black people in Africa and most Caribbean islands, the black people of the Virgin Islands see nothing insulting in it and freely refer to themselves as "natives". This writer defers to
the local custom and refers to people born in the Virgin
Islands as "natives". Needless to say, one can be native
and not black. There are a small number of white or near white natives, many of whom are influential in Island affairs. However, since the overwhelming majority of
natives are black people by mainland standards, "native" can be taken as synonomous with "black person born in the Virgin Islands" unless otherwise noted. Tourists or
island residents born in the mainland United States are
called "continentals". "Continental" applies to all such people regardless of skin color, but since nearly all con
tinentals are white Americans, a continental generally means "white person, either resident or tourist, from the mainland USA", again unless otherwise noted.
To aid the reader in following the chronology,
a list of governors and the years of their administrations is given as an appendix.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ON HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
A. General Explanation of the Meaning of Historical Materialism
This chapter attempts to develop a model of
historical materialism which can be used in explaining
socio-economic change. Thus, the problem addressed here
is the classic problem of historians, the question
"Why did this happen?". This model is based primarily
on the original work of Marx and Engels, but it is not
an exegesis of their thought. Although the question
of what Marx and Engels "really meant" is a fascinating
and important one it is not germane to our purpose.
That purpose is to distill out of Marx, Engels and other
scholars in the tradition a model which will be useful
in understanding the evolution of particular societies.
Consequently, although a number of philosophical and
theoretical questions will be examined, these will be
limited to questions which bear on the operational
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and practical aspects of the subject. To give an example,
while the question of the place of determinism in
historical materialism will be treated at some length,
the issue of the truth of philosophical materialism
or the validity of Engels' "laws" of dialectics will
not. The following pages will attempt to distill that
historical materialist model, attributing its various
elements to the authors who originated or emphasized
them, with the eventual goal of generating a reasonably
simple and practical procedure to be used in the
investigation of specific societies.
While the meaning of the word "materialism" in
"historical materialism" is of some importance, the
meaning of "historical" is more straightforward and
needs fairly little explanation. R. De George states,
in the explanatory notes to his book, that, "Later on
Engels gives the name of 'historical materialism' to
this view of history. 'The Marxist conception of
history,' 'the materialist interpretation of history'
and 'historical materialism' are all used as synonymous
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. terms in the later Marxist literature."! This writer
concurs. Examination of the works of Chesnokov, Corn-
forth, Croce, Labriola, Jordan, Korsch, Lenin and
Plekhanov, all of whom use both "historical materialism"
and "materialist conception of history" (or some close
variant of the latter) use them synonymously.2 other
authors limit themselves to one term, but there seem
to be no prominent Marxist writers or non-Marxist
writers on Marxism who made any substantive distinction
between "historical materialism" and "materialist con
ception of history."
Now, if the term "materialist conception of
history" were used in this dissertation - it was not
The Origins and Development of Dialectical and Historical Materialism (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1966), p. 253.
^Chesnokov, Historical Materialism, p. 13; Comforth, Historical Materialism, p. 14; Croce, Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl Marx, p. 77; Labriola, The Materialistic Conception of History, Part II, ‘‘Historical Materialism;*' Jordan, The Evolution of Dialectical Materialism, pp. 297-298; Korsch, Karl Marx, Chapter I, Part III, "The Material istic Conception of History," and Chapter II, "The Genesis of Historical Materialism;" Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, pp. 333-343; Plekhanov, Fundamental Problems of Marxism, pp. 24-25.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. because it is clumsy - the question of what is meant by
the word "history" would not arise. "History" means the
same thing to both Marxist and non-Marxist scholars. As
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines it, history is
"a systematic written account comprising a chronological
record of events (as affecting a city, state, nation,
institution, science or art) and usually including a
philosophical explanation of the cause and origin of
such events." With due room for scholarly hair-splitting,
this definition is essentially what is meant by most
writers of history regardless of their relation to
Marxism. Since "history" in the phrase "materialist
conception of history," "Marxist conception of history"
and "materialist interpretation of history" retains its
usual meaning, the word "historical" in "historical
materialism" also carries its generally understood
meaning. By way of explaining the meaning of historical
materialism, L. Althusser says.
Of course, this new science (historical materialism, WJK) is materialist, but so is every science, and that is why its general theory is called 'historical materialism.' Here materialism is quite simply the strict attitude of the scientist to the reality of his
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. object which allows him to grasp what Engels called 'nature just as it exists without any foreign admixture.'
In the slightly odd phrase 'historical materialism' (we do not use the phrase 'chemical materialism' to designate chemistry), the word materialism registers both the initial rupture with the idealism of philosophies of history and the installation of scientificity with respect to history. Historical materialism thus means: science of history.3
Whether one agrees with the equation of science with mate-
^!3.1ism or not, it is obvious that Althusser takes the
word history in its common, dictionary meaning also.
Webster defined "historical" as, "1. of, relating to, or
having the character of history, especially as distin
guished from myth or legend, 2. based on or dealing with
history." This common meaning, especially as in (2.) is
what is meant by historical in "historical materialism."
Materialism is taken as a methodological assump
tion of this model. J. Witt-Hansen explains materialism
as a methodological principle in this way.
Hence, although society, i.e., any social forma tion, embraces 'material' and 'spiritual' life as well, the latter may, in the first approxi mation (to a description of society as a whole),
^Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1971), p. 40.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be ignored or abstracted from. Or, since 'social being' is independent of 'social consciousness' it can be dealt with in isolation from or without taking into consideration the disturbing influences of the latter. This is a great methodological advantage, since it enables the social scientist to single out the features of a definite social formation to which the criterion of recurrence can be s u p p l i e d . 4
This is the way materialism will be considered here.
Furthermore, this seems to be a way in which Marx himself
conceived materialism. Here is Marx quoting from Kaufman's
review of Capital in his preface to the second edition,
...If in the history of civilization the con scious element plays a part so subordinate, then it is self-evident that a critical inquiry whose subject-matter is civilization, can, less than anything else, have for its basis any form of, or any result of, conscious ness. That is to say, that not the idea, but the material phenomenon alone can serve as its starting-point. Such an inquiry will confine itself to the confrontation and the comparison of a fact, not with ideas, but with another fact.5
4Johannes Witt-Hansen, Historical Materialism. The Method, the Theories: Exposition and Critique, Book One: The Method (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1961), p. 60.
^Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (V.I.) (New York: Random House (Modem Library), Reprint of Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1906 edition, no date), p. 23.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Or as Witt-Hansen puts it, "'Social being' or material
social phenomena are in other words chosen as a starting-
point for the investigation of a definite social forma
tion as a whole, because they are independent of 'social
consciousness' or spiritual social phenomena, whereas
the latter cannot be dealt with until an adequate
description of 'social being' has been s u p p l i e d , "6
Taking the "material phenomenon" as the "starting-point"
does not preclude interaction between "material" and
"spiritual" phenomena. Needless to say - and this will
be taken up later - examination of these kinds of inter
actions is one of Marxism's greatest contributions to
thought and forms a large part of the subject to which
dialectical and historical materialism have been applied.
The principle hypotheses of historical materialism
are built on the above methodological position. Marx
himself explicitly outlined these hypotheses in the
introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy and the Communist Manifesto and they
are the basic hypotheses of this model also. They are:
^itt-Hansen, Book One: The Method, p. 61.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1) It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.
2) The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.
3) In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.
4) The totality of these relations of produc tion constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.
5) At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or - this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms - with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of develop ment of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.7
Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970), pp. 20-21.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6) The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.^
At this point the bare statement of these hypotheses will
suffice. The terms they contain will be defined presently
and their actual use in the explanation of socio-economic
development will be demonstrated in the chapters on the
development of the Virgin Islands.
The most basic concept mentioned above is the
mode of production. The mode of production has been
defined by Comforth as, "The way in which people pro
duce and exchange their means of life..."9 This concept
is equivalent to the base on which arises the ideological
superstructure and is made up of two closely related
parts. The first part is the "forces of production"
which, "...consist of the instruments of production, and
people, with their production experience and skill, who
use these instruments."!0 Embodied in these instruments
^Karl Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Com munist Party. In Lewis Feuer (ed.), Marx and Engels; Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 7.
%aurice Comforth, Historical Materialism (New York: Intemational Publishers, 1971), p. 35.
^^Ibid., p. 36.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10
and skills is the accumulated knowledge of society, thus
science and other knowledge directly related to productive
assets and people's skills in work is also necessarily
included in the "forces of production." The forces of
production of any society are largely inherited from
previous generations and so form a complex which are
not consciously and rapidly transformed by the present
generation. Each generation does alter these forces,
of course, but because types and distributions of
knowledge and its applications have generally been quite
diffuse in space and time the development of productive
forces has been largely outside the conscious control
of any one generation of society.
"Forces of production" is a difficult concept to
deal with. It is a central idea of Marxist analysis but
an extensive search of Marx's and Engel's writings reveals
no explicit definition. The idea is defined implicitly
by its use, of course, but not surprisingly there are
discrepancies. It is not so much that the implicit
definitions contradict themselves; rather, they emphasize
the aspect needed by the context where the idea is used.
In a passage where Marx and Engels are talking about the
localism of the Middle Ages, they say, "it depends purely
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11
on the extension of commerce whether the productive
forces achieved in a locality, especially inventions,
are lost for later development or not." Ü (Author's
emphasis.) Here the stress is on technology. In another
place Engels states, "At a certain stage the new pro
ductive forces set in motion by the bourgeoisie - in
the first place, the division of labor and the combina
tion of many detail laborers (Teilarbeiter) in one
general manufactory - and the conditions and require
ments of exchange developed through these productive
forces became incompatible with the existing order of
production... "12 Here the division of labor is singled
out. In another place the two authors write, "...that
private property is a form of intercourse necessary
for certain stages of development of the productive
forces; a form of intercourse that cannot be abolished,
l^Karl Marx and F. Engels, The German Ideology (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964), p. 69.
Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, in Lewis Feuer (ed.), Marx and Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 233.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12
and cannot be dispensed within the production of direct
material life, until productive forces have been created
for which private property becomes a restricting
fetter.Here we find an important role for the
forces of production in determining the form of inter
course. In hypothesis five above from the "introduction"
to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,
we notice how important the productive forces are as an
agent of social change. Elucidation of the concept
cannot come from Marx's and Engels' writing except in
the most general sense, but expositions of others may
make the idea clearer.
Before commenting on other authors' ideas on
the forces of production, a caveat is in order. Un
fortunately, few of them seem to have had much interest
in the question and this writer has been able to find
no fully adequate treatment. With this in mind, the
comments of other authors and this writer have to be
taken as provisional. M. Comforth's definition, quoted
previously, makes the forces of production consist of
^^Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, p. 386.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13
three elements - productive assets, people and the
knowledge used in production. C.W. Mills defines the
forces as: "(a) natural resources, such as land and
minerals, so far as they are used as objects of labor;
(b) physical equipment such as tools, machines, tech
nology; (c) science and engineering, the skills of men
who invent or improve this equipment ; (d) those who do
work with these skills and tools ; (e) their division of
labor, insofar as this social organization increases
their productivity.j, Witt-Hansen has it that,
"The productive forces comprise tools of the instruments
of production and human beings who operate them, in
cluding their production experience and labour s k i l l ."15
The most lengthy treatment comes from D. Chesnokov's
581 page tome. Historical Materialism, which is generally
dogmatic to the point of uselessness but can be reasonable
on definitions and other topics which do not have an
immediate bearing on Soviet politics.
^^C.W. Mills, The Marxists (New York: Delta, 1962), pp. 82-83
^^Witt-H.^^Witt-Hansen, Book One: The Method, p. 58, original italics.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14
Let us examine more closely these elements which make up the productive forces of society. Living labour consists of the activity of people, who possess the ability to expend physiological and other energy in the process of production... Man's expenditure of energy takes different forms at different stages of history. People accumulate a fund of labour skills and knowledge which have the importance of objective truths embodied in the achievements of science and technique... The...element of the productive forces is ac cumulated or materialized labour, the deter mining part of which consists of instruments of labour... Accumulated or materialized labour includes, besides instruments and other means of labour, also raw materials, i.e. objects of labour, provided by nature, which have been obtained by human l a b o u r . 16
There is considerable agreement among these formulations.
Mills' inclusion of one aspect of the division of labor
is quite vague and would probably be better put under
"relations of production." We must admit that these
definitions have a readily comprehensible thrust, but
at the same time the lack of detailed articulation leaves
them somewhat vague. And this vagueness leads to some
unease concerning their use in empirical investigation.
About all that can be done short of a full-fledged re
formulation of the whole concept is to be especially
careful and explicit in using it in empirical work.
Chesnokov, Historical Materialism (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966), pp. 73-74.
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The second component of the mode of production iis
known as the "relations of production." In the passage
from the "introduction" to A Contribution to the Critique
of Political Economy quoted above notice that "...men
inevitably enter into definite relations, which are
independent of their will, namely relations of produc
tion appropriate to a given stage in the development of
their material forces of production." Thus, like the
forces of production, men cannot choose their relations
of production willy-nilly, but are severely limited among
the choices conceivable in thought to those "...appro
priate to a given stage in the development of (the)
material forces of production." The relations of produc
tion have two aspects. First, there are the direct
human relationships in the workplace. These include
the relations between different skills in the produc
tive process and the basic authority structures of
economic units. Second, we have the relations among
groups of people engaged in production and the means
of production they utilize. This second category is
another way of saying property relations. In
^^Comforth, Historical Materialism, p. 37.
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practice these aspects are not completely distinct since
the human relations of work depend at least in part on
property relations, but it is still a useful theoretical
classification.
In many ways the state of articulation of the
"relations of production" concept is akin to that of
the "forces of production." Here again there are no
rigorous definitions in Marx's and Engels' writings
and the implicit definitions remain vague. Thus, a
quick survey of the authors who have written about the
concept is a reasonable approach to clarifying it. In
this connection Comforth states.
And what do we mean by the relations of produc tion? These relations are partly simple and direct relations which people enter into with' one another in the actual production process itself - simple and direct relations between people engaged in a common productive task. But when people carry on production they must needs enter into social relations, not only with one another, but also with the means of production which they are u s i n g . 18
Mills thinks the relations of production are extremely
straightforward. He defines them as, "in capitalism...
essentially the institution of private property and
18lbid.. 37.
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the consequent class relations between those who do and
those who do not own it."19 j. Witt-Hansen points out
the "...relations of production in Marx belong to the
class of material social relations in contradistinction
to ideological social relations..." and that "...property
relations...are basic economic relations, since they are
the legal expression of the relations of material
production."20 He then falls back on Marx's "descrip
tion", which he rightly does not consider a definition.
In production, men not only act on nature but also on one another. They produce only by cooperating in a certain way and mutually exchanging their activities. In order to produce, they enter into definite connections and relations with one another and only within these social connections and relations does their action on nature, does production, take place.21
Chesnokov, who begins his exposition with the quote
from Marx used by Witt-Hansen, goes on to catalog five
component parts of the relations of production.
...(1) The relations to the means of produc tion is the chief, determining factor in production relations... (2) The economic
^^Mills, The Marxists, p. 82.
^^Witt-Hansen, Book One: The Method, p. 59.
^hh±d., p. 59.
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relations of classes, social groups, etc.... (3) The mutual relations of the workers of all spheres of production, which have been formed and have become isolated from one another owing to the social division of labour... (4) production relations include not only the relations of classes and social groups to one another, but also the mutual relations within each class, social group, etc.... (5) all relations connected with the distribution of the social product also form part of the system of production relations.22
After having stated all this, Chesnokov puts the primary
emphasis on the relation between people and the means of
production.
From what has been said above it is clear that the system of production relations is complex and many sided. But the primary element, viz., people's relation to the means of production, is the chief feature of production relations and determines their character and n a t u r e . 23
The case of the relations of production is thus similar
to the case of the forces of production. We have a
fairly good idea of what the concept means, but in the
absence of rigorous definitions it will be necessary
to be cautious and explicit in using it.
^^Chesnokov, Historical Materialism, pp. 77-78.
23lbid.. p. 78.
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Another prominent part of Marx's system is the
dichotomy of "base" and "superstructure" and the
linkages between them. As stated earlier, "base" is
equivalent to "mode of production." "Superstructure"
might best be thought of as the products of intellec
tion and so would include law, political ideas, religion,
philosophy, art and so forth. Marx called these
"ideological forms." The two main points usually made
about the superstructure are that it arises from the
base and must correspond to it. As Marx and Engels
put it - here addressing the bourgeoisie in The
Communist Manifesto - "Your very ideas are but the
outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production
and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is
but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will
whose essential character and direction are determined
by the economic conditions of existence of your c l a s s . "24
This clearly expresses the thought that a definite super
structure arises on the base of the bourgeois mode of
production. The latter notion, that base must correspond
^^arx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, p. 24.
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to superstructure, simply means that it is not possible
for a whole complex of ideological forms such as those
of bourgeois democracy (personal freedom, private
property, equality before the law, etc.) to exist on
an economic base such as, say, feudalism or the slave
societies of antiquity.
This idea of the correspondence of base and
superstructure has great practical methodological
importance because it implies the degree of determinism
(or, if you will, reductionism) in historical materialism.
One could take the most radical position and say that
the superstructure is uniquely determined by the base
and reduces directly to it. Although this position
is hardly ever found stated in this gross way, many
so-called Marxists have taken such a position in
practice. This is particularly true of Stalinists.
In his long polemic against Stalinist dogmatism, Sartre
states that rather than creatively explain phenomena
Stalinists "situate" it. In his words, "Valery is a
petit bourgeois intellectual, no doubt about it. But
not every petit bourgeois intellectual is Valery. The
huerestic inadequacy of contemporary Marxism is contained
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in these two sentences. Marxism lacks any heirarchy
of mediations which would permit it to grasp the
process which produces the person and his product
inside a class and within a given society at a given
historical m o m e n t . "25 Thus Sartre sees "contemporary
Marxism" (Stalinism) as unable to explain the place
of individuals in history. The same problem applies
to historical groups.
The French Revolution, on the other hand, although by 1793 it had assumed a very precise economic sense, is not directly reducible in 1792 to the age-old con flict of mercantile capitalisms. It must first be made to pass through a process of mediation, one which will bring into play the concrete men who were involved in it, the specific character it took on from its basic conditioning, the ideological instru ments it employed, the real environ ment of the Revolution.26
Marx and Engels themselves would have no truck
with this sort of reductionism and went to great pains
^3Jean Paul Sartre, Search for a Method (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), p. 56.
26lbid., p. 42.
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Garaudy, in his Marxism in the Twentieth Century, states
what seems to have been Marx's position on the matter,
which is this writer's also.
The historical materialism of Marx, accordingly, is a method neither of deduction or reduction. The super structures cannot be deduced from the base, nor can they be reduced to it. All one can say is that both super structures and base are elements of one and the same organic whole, in which the relationships of society... which embraces it, play a major part.28
Sophisticated Marxists have never looked at the
superstructure as being a direct outgrowth of the base.
Although references have been made in passing to this
attitude, it must be explicitly said that once a
superstructural element is established it takes on
27por example, see Engels' letters to Conrad Schmidt (1890), Joseph Bloch (1890) and Franz Mehring (1893). All are found in L. Feuer (ed.), Marx and Engels; Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy (Carden City, 1959). See also any number of Marx's statements on this subject: The Holy Family (p. 125), Third of the Theses on Feuerbach, etc.
28Roger Caraudy, Marxism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Charles Scribner*s Sons, 1970), pp. 56-57.
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a life, tradition and momentum of its own and this
process of self-generating growth and change must be
recognized and studied if an investigator is not to
fall into the grossest kind of over-simplifying errors.
Gramsci was particularly aware of the semi-
autonomous nature of superstruetural development.
Echoing Plekhanov, he pointed out that there is a
continuum of distance between the base and various
superstructural elements, and the further the particular
element is from the base, the more independent its
development. In his review of a rather mechanistic
presentation of historical materialism by Bukharin,
he said,
The claim...that every fluctuation of politics and ideology can be presented and expounded as an immediate expression of the structure (mode of production, WJK) , must be con tested in theory as primitive infantilism...29
and went on to give an example.
It is not sufficiently borne in mind that many political acts are due to internal necessities of an organizational character, that is they are tied to the need to give
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Q. Hoare and G.N, Smith, ed. and trans.) (New York: International Publishers, 1971), p. 407.
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coherence to a party, a group, a society. This is made clear for example in the history of the Catholic Church. If, for every ideological struggle within the Church one wanted to find an immediate primary explanation in the structure one would really be caught napping: all sorts of politico-economic romances have been written for this reason. It is evident on the contrary that the majority of these discussions are connected with sectarian and organizational necessities.30
Superstructural elements not only have a semi-
autonomous development vis a vis the base, they can also
react on the general drift of history and so play a
large role in events. History is filled with examples,
not the least of which was Stalin's collectivization of
Soviet agriculture which a wag once called "the revenge
of the superstructure." Marx was certainly well aware
of this kind of interplay, and his historical works are
largely preoccupied with such effects. In the introduc
tion to Marx's analysis of the Paris Commune, Engels
asks, "what had been the characteristic attribute of
the former state? Society had created its own organs
to look after its common interests, originally through
simple division of labour. But these organs, at whose
30'ibid., p. 408.
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pursuance of their own special interests, transformed them
selves from the servants of society into the masters of
society."31
Engels explicitly recognized the possibilities of
the superstructure playing a relatively independent role
in history during his later years. In a letter to Conrad
Schmidt in 1890 he stated that, "...while the material
mode of existence in the primum agens this does not pre
clude the ideological spheres from reaction upon it in
their turn, though with a secondary effect..."32
another letter, to Joseph Bloch this time, Engels
masterfully summed up the general relation between base
and the superstructure,
...According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. More than this neither Marx nor
3lRarl Marx and F. Engels, On the Paris Commune (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971), p. 32. Contains The Civil War in France and notes, articles, speeches, etc. by Marx and Engels on the Commune.
22p. Engels, Letters on Historical Materialism, in Lewis Feuer (ed.), Marx and Engels : Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 396. Italics original.
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I has ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase. The economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstructure - the political forms of the class struggle and its results, to wit: constitutions established by the victorious class after a successful battle, etc., judicial forms, and even the reflexes of all these actual struggles in the brains of the participants, political, juristic, philosophical theories, religious views, and their further development into systems of dogmas - also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases preponderate in determining their form. There is an interaction of all these elements in which, amidst all the endless host of accidents (that is, of things and events whose interconnection is so remote or so impossible of proof that we can regard it as non*«existent, as negligible), the economic movement finally asserts itself as necessary. Otherwise the application of the theory to any period of history would be easier than the solution of a simple equation of the first d e g r e e . 33
Thus, when due regard for the secondary independence of
the superstructure is given, historical materialism
takes the realistic position that ideological forms can
neither be understood by reference only to their socio
economic environment nor only by reference to their own
internal development.
33ibid., pp. 397-398. Italics original.
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Although Marx and Engels were not reductionists,34
they did not set out a specific hierarchy of mediations
for use in making explicit connections between super-
structural and basic elements. It may be they thought
that the creative application of their method to a
particular case would automatically bring out these
relationships in the same manner they followed in their
own historical works. But in any case, mediations were
not emphasized theoretically in their writings.
Although Sartre is quite correct that the
Stalinist tradition ignored mediations - and this was
one cause of some of the disastrous Stalinist decisions
and oversimplifications - such mediations have been
suggested by some scholars. Plekhanov, who was par
ticularly interested in developing a Marxian mode of
art criticism, suggested "the mentality of men living
in society, a mentality which is determined in part
directly by economic conditions obtaining, and in part
by the entire socio-political system that has arisen
3^Any of their popular works will show their anti reduction ism in practice. See Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon or The Civil War in France, or Engels' The Peasant War in Germany or Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
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on that foundation."35 This mentality he called the
"psychology of the epoch" and it can be considered the
mind-set of a people in a particular time. Plekanov
saw this social psychology as linking the socio-economic
base with the superstructure of thought. This idea
admits necessary complexity and subtlety into the
process of growth of ideology out of social reality
and thus forms an important part of the method which
seeks to see social development as a unified, organic
process rather than a series of independent cause-
effect relationships. To give another example from a
different study, Sartre points out that it is unsatis
factory to situate a person (in his case Flaubert) in
a class and then claim to have "explained" his work.
In such a case one has simply ignored the concrete
individual and thus lost any hope of comprehending
his particular contribution. For such a case, Sartre
suggests the study of the individual's development -
in particular his family life - as a way to restore the
33g .V. Plekhanov, Fundamental Problems of Marxism (New York: International Publishers, 1969), p. 80.
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individual to the more general development of the class
whose outlook he more or less expresses.
Plekhanov also emphasized the direct links among
superstructural elements in his stand against reduc
tionism. Thus, he bade the historian of ideas look at
the relationships among those ideas while at the same
time looking at the socio-economic situation which gave
birth to them. In his words, "...materialism did not
prevent Marx from recognizing the action, in history,
of the 'spirit' as a force whose direction is determined
at any given time and in the final analysis by the course
of economic development ."36 Anticipating Gramsci,
Plekhanov further pointed out that superstructural
elements form a hierarchy of varying distances from the
base. Consequently the links between base and a specific
set of ideas will be much more direct in certain cases.
An example of very direct influence is law. It would
be very difficult if not impossible to apply feudal law
to bourgeois industrial economy where mobility of
resources and labor is a prerequisite. Consequently,
one would expect a rather rapid and complete alteration
^ ^ I b i d ., p . 81.
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in law as the bourgeoisie rose and consolidated its
power over the feudal ruling class. And, with due
account made for the peculiarities of each case, this
is exactly what has happened in societies where a
bourgeois industrial system has evolved. In contrast
to law, religion is much further removed from the base.
Although the general trend of socio-economic events has
been very important in the evolution of religious ideas -
the Reformation and Bauerenkrieg in Germany, the Civil
War in Britain - it would surely be a mistake to attempt
an explanation of religious development solely with
reference to social and economic changes. Major
emphasis would certainly have to be placed on the
development of theology, revelation, prophecy, etc.
Determining the strength and number of direct links
with the base and the types and effects of mediations
is obviously a subtle matter and it is here that the
creative and discriminating faculties of the scholar
come into play in analyzing and weighing the importance
of various ideas and their relationships to one another.
A crucial concept in the hypotheses of historical
materialism is the concept of class. As is well known.
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Marx and Engels never fully expounded their theory of
class and so it has fallen to later writers to distill
whet they can from Marx and Engels' works and try to
elaborate a more coherent classification in that spirit.
A great deal of confusion has reigned about the nature
of class for many reasons. Much of the writing on the
subject has been polemical, attempts to "refute" or
"prove" Marxism, rather than scholarly and constructive.
Even among serious writers, however, there is fundamental
disagreement on the subject. There is no attempt here
to explicate this varied and confused literature or
expound what Marx "really meant ;" rather, we will try
to confront the two main issues present in much of the
debate. These are the issues of dichotomic versus
multi-divisional structure and the determinants of class.
Even a cursory reading of Marx and Engels' works -
The Communist Manifesto, for instance - reveals that
"Marx and Engels are above all the inheritors of the
dichotomic perceptions found in folklore and the militant
ideology of popular revolutions."37 in the past, these
37g. Ossowski, Class Structure in the Social Consciousness (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), p. 74.
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dichotomies included master - slave and serf - lord. For
the founders of Marxism, the split was between capitalist
and worker. These latter two classes were considered the
basic operators of the capitalist period and were to
grow at the expense of other classes throughout that
period. This basic outlook did not prevent Marx from
attributing great importance to other classes in his
historical works where such importance was warranted.
As S. Ossowski put it, "Marx the revolutionary and
Marx the dramatist of history developed a dichotomic
conception of a class society. Marx the sociologist
was compelled in his analysis of contemporary societies
to infringe the sharpness of the dichotomic division by
introducing intermediate classes. He could not over
look the 'masses of the nation...standing between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie' ."38 The two important
intermediate classes were the petit bourgeoisie, who
owned some means of production but employed little or
no hired labor, and the peasantry, small farmers who
owned or rented small amounts of land which they worked
themselves.
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While the dichotomous and multi-divisional schemes
are different, they are not contradictory. The dichotomic
scheme characterizes capitalist society with reference to
its most important and distinctive relation of production,
while the multi-divisional scheme describes the actual
social structure. It should be obvious that any
sophisticated analysis of an actual capitalist society
must follow the lead of Marx the sociologist and take
account of the multiplicity of class forms found in that
society while at the same time relating those forms to
the basic capital-labor dichotomy.
Classes can be identified by both objective and
subjective determinants. During the earlier stages of
Marxist scholarship, primary emphasis was put on the
objective, material side. For example, Lenin's definition
reads,
Classes are large groups of people which differ from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labour and, consequently, by the dimensions and method of acquiring the share of social wealth of which they dispose. Classes are groups of people one of which can appropriate the
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labour of another owing to the different places they occupy in a definite system of social e c o n o m y . 39
Although the definition is very general and somewhat
vague, it enumerates four objective determinants of class.
These are: 1) The group's place in the system of
property; 2) the group's place in the hierarchy of func
tions; 3) the amount of the national income and wealth
they have and the way in which they get it; 4) the degree
of control they have over other groups' labor.
Marx himself generally added a psychological or
subjective component as an integral aspect of the
entities he called classes. His distinction was between
those groups who fulfilled the objective economic con
ditions and consciously identified themselves as a
cohesive group and those groups who had some or all of
the economic characteristics in common but who failed
to recognize themselves as fundamentally united. The
best known short way of making the distinction is the
contrast he made between Klasse fur sich and Klasse an
^^Lenin, A Great Beginning, in The Essentials of Lenin (two vols.) (London, 1947), p. 492. Quoted in Ossowski, Class Structure in the Social Consciousness, p. 72.
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sich (class-for-itself and class-in-itself). It is the
former which is by far the more important historical actor.
At the same time, however, Marx really did not make much
of this potentially crucial distinction and so it
remained for others to develop the ideas of class
consciousness more fully.
Probably the two Marxist thinkers who have con
tributed most to the elucidation of the subjective
determinants of class are Georg Lukacs and Antonio
Gramsci. These two belong to the idealist tendency in
the Marxian tradition and so it is natural that they
should look to ideas and consciousness as important
historical factors. Lukacs forcefully drew attention
to the role of class consciousness in the transformation
of society, "...when the final economic crisis of
capitalism develops, the fate of the revolution (and
with it the fate of mankind) will depend on the
ideological maturity of the proletariat, i.e. on its
class consciousness."^^ And, "The crucial question in
^^Ossowski, Class Structure in the Social Consciousness, p. 73.
^^Georg Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971), p. 70 (italics original).
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every class struggle is this: which class possesses this
capacity and this consciousness at the decisive moment?"42
And finally,
As the bourgeoisie has the intellectual, organisational and every other advantage, the superiority of the proletariat must lie exclusively in its ability to see society from the centre, as a coherent whole. This means that it is able to act in such a way as to change reality; in the class consciousness of the proletariat theory and practice coincide and so it can con sciously throw the weight of its actions onto the scales of history - and this is the deciding factor.43
In these and many other passages, Lukacs was trying to
assert (to use Sartre's phrase) the "irreducibility of
human praxis," the position that humankind's conscious
purposive action plays a crucial role in the Marxian
scheme. The role of conscious human.action, more; general
than action arising from class consciousness is
discussed later in this chapter.
Such ideas were heretical to official Marxist-
Leninist parties at the time of their publication
(1920's) and Lukacs was forced to repudiate many of
p. 52.
^^Ibld.. p. 69.
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them, but the discovery of Marx's early works during the
1930's showed that there was ample evidence to support
these interpretations from Marx's own thought. A
particularly pointed passage from The Holy Family (1844)
reads, "History does nothing, it 'possesses no immense
wealth,' it 'wages no battles.' It is man, real living
man, that does all that, that possesses and fights;
'history' is not a person apart, using man as a means
for its own particular aims; history is nothing but the
activity of man pursuing his aims.
While Lukacs strongly asserted the importance
of class consciousness, he did not analyze it as closely
as Antonio Gramsci. With Lukacs, Gramasci saw that
class consciousness was central. After all, if misery
and injustice created revolution the lower classes
would be in constant revolt. Social revolutions
(especially in their later stages) are conscious events
in that the revolutionary class or classes want an end
to the power of the ruling class, and the more class
conscious the revolutionaries are the more effective they
^^Karl Marx and F. Engels, The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Critique (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956), p. 125 (italics original).
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promoting the interest of the new rising class(es).
Thus, creation of a clear and self-conscious program
and life-style is crucial for any class which wishes
to make over society. Gramsci clearly perceived that
creating class consciousness was largely an educational
process. This educational process has both a positive
and a negative aspect revolving about the concept of
hegemony. Hegemony is the moral force of the ruling
class and comes about by the consent of the masses to
be ruled by reason of the "superior" qualifications of
that class. In Gramsci's words, "(It is) the 'spontaneous'
consent given by the great masses of the population to
the general direction imposed on social life by the
dominant fundamental group; this consent is 'historically'
caused by the prestige (and consequent confidence) which
the dominant group enjoys because of its position and
function in the world of production."45 Or as another
scholar put it, hegemony "depends entirely on its (the
ruling class', WJK) ability to convince the lower classes
45cramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, p. 12.
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that its interests are those of society at large - that
it defends the common sensibility and stands for a
natural and proper social o r d e r . "46
Consequently, the positive side of class con
sciousness creation is the breaking down of hegemony
by building up all those bonds (political, moral, social,
cultural, etc.) which make mass action possible. The
negative side is the general critique of the status quo
in order to show its inability to meet people's needs -
to show that the status quo is not a "natural and proper
social order" but a system of class domination.
At this point it is appropriate to tie together
the brief remarks just made on the objective and sub
jective aspects of class in order to develop a working
concept for use in later analysis. The foregoing has
implies that the only sophisticated concept of class is
one which incorporates both aspects. First, it is the
socio-economic position of a group which forms the in-
dispensible base for differentiating it from other groups
46Eugene D. Genovese, In Red and Black; Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History (New York: Pantheon Books, 1968), p. 407.
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which makes it a class. It is the necessary condition,
Marx's class-in-itself. This follows Lenin's definition.
His four criteria are the factors that make for a unity
of interest which makes a group live, act and think in a
common way. It is not necessary that every member or
sub-group occupy exactly the same position, particularly
with respect to the second of Lenin's criteria (place in
the hierarchy of function), to be considered in the same
class. Marx contrasted the Legitimists and Orleanists
in his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte as two
factions which attempted to promote their respective
royal houses during the 1848-1851 period. He saw that
beneath their rhetoric stood the conflict between landed
property (Legitimists) and industrial capital (Orleanists).
Despite their marked and active conflict, however, they
stood together as the "Party of Order" against the
demands of the working class and the petit bourgeoisie.
Behind the scenes they donned their Orleanist and Legitimist liveries again and once more engaged in their old tourneys. But on the public stage, in their grand performances of state...they do their real business as the Party of Order, that is, under a social, not under a political title; as representatives of the bourgeois world-order, not as knights of errant princesses; as the bourgeois class
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against other classes... for only under this form could the two great divisions of the French bourgeoisie unite, and thus put the rule of their class instead of the regime of a privileged fac tion of it on the order of the d a y . 47
Thus, some points shared between the Legitimists and Or
leanists, Lenin's points one, four and the first part of
three, were enough to unite these "two great divisions of
the French bourgeoisie" in a common front against those
who questioned the bourgeois order. Of course the more
points in common between any two groups the less conflict
there would be, and when the divergences become so great
that it becomes impossible for the strata to form a united
front on fundamental social issues, they can no longer
be termed a class.
Common socio-economic position, then, is the
necessary condition for a group to be a class. However,
a group may not have developed class consciousness to a
degree which enables it to act aggressively and coherently
in its own interests. There may be any number of reasons
for this. Language, race or cultural differences may
sidetrack the development of class consciousness. Such
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1967), pp. 38-39 (italics original).
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differences, along with others, go a long way to explain
the relative lack of class consciousness in the American
working class, for example. Lack of consciousness does
not mean that the group ceases to be a class, but rather
that it will be a less effective historical actor. For
example, the American working class has not spawned a
strong workers’ political movement as has happened in
Europe, and because of this workers receive greater social
benefits - a primary goal of such movements - in many of
these societies even though the per capita income is equal
or lower. Thus, this writer believes socio-economic
position determines class but that consciousness plays
a major part in determining the strength of class bonds
and the kind and effectiveness of class activity.
Hypotheses one, two and four all contain state
ments on ideas (consciousness, ideology); hypothesis
one that it is not the consciousness of men that determines
their existence but their social existence that determines
their consciousness; hypothesis two that the mode of
production "conditions" all areas of life ; and hypothesis
four that the intellectual superstructure arises on the
economic base. These hypotheses give the general position
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that ideas, or systems of ideas (ideologies), are a product
of social being rather than pure thought. In his famous
letter to Annenkov, Marx was quite explicit as to how
ideas are produced, "...men, according to their abilities,
also produce the social relations amid which they prepare
cloth and linen. Still less has he (Proudhon, WJK)
understood that men, who produce their social relations
in accordance with their material productivity, also
produce ideas, categories, that is to say the abstract
ideal expression of these same social r e a l t i o n s ."48
But just because ideology is a product of the base does
not mean that it derives directly from the base or is
reducible to it. This was pointed out earlier along
with the idea that some ideological forms are determined
at several removes from the base and are mediated through
other institutions and forms of thought. Thus, ideologies
have a varying and important independence from the base.
As Engels put it.
Every ideology, however, once it has arisen, develops in connection with the given concept material, and develops this material further;
48Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966), "Letter to P.V. Mnenkov," p. 163.
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otherwise it would not be an ideology, that is, occupation with thoughts as with in dependent entities, developing independently and subject only to their own l a w s . 49
Engels also pointed out that the links between thought
and socio-economic base seem even more tenuous because
thinkers themselves are seldom aware of the connections
between their thought and the socio-economic conditions
which help determine it. Engels commented on this
idealist bias in a letter to Franz Mehring in 1893.
Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him, otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces. Because it is a process of thought, he derives its form as well as its content from pure thought, either his own or that of his predecessors. He works with mere thought material, which he accepts without examina tion as the product of thought, and does not investigate further for a more remote source independent of thought; indeed, this is a matter of course to him, because as all action is mediated by thought it appears to him to be ultimately based upon thought.50
4%ngels, End of Classical German Philosophy, pp. 237-238.
^^Engels, "Letter to Franz Mehring," in Feuer (ed.), Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, p. 408 (italics original).
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While ideologies were seen as products of the base, Marx
and Engels attributed a large degree of independence to
them and also pointed out that ideologies can and do
react back on the base, changing and adapting it to the
requirements of its ideological product.
This idea of the reactive power of thought on
the base has been especially prominent in the twentieth
century with the rise of Bolshevism in Russia and the
strong Communist movements in the less developed
countries. If the successful Communist revolutions
have proved anything it is that ideology can change
the socio-economic base in ways and with a rapidity
that earlier generations of Marxists would have thought
highly unlikely if not impossible. The strong practical
and voluntarist bent of Lenin which made him see backward
Russia as fertile ground for socialist revolution
originated this emphasis which has been carried forward
in more extreme forms by Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. It
may be that Gramsci put it most succinctly, "Revolu
tionary thought does not see time as a factor of
progress... To pass through one stage and advance to
another, it is enough that the first stage be realized
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in thought."51 This is dangerous ground in many ways.
While it is obviously true that thought does react back
upon its base, an extreme belief in the primacy of this
process leads directly to the idealist position which
Marx and Engels spent so much of their time refuting -
that thought rather than socio-economic development is
the basic cause of historical change. There are con
sequently no easy answers to the question, "What is the
exact causal role of thought in historical development?".
This is another place where the scholar must use his
"creative and discriminating faculties" in an attempt
to order his data in a meaningful and reasonable way and
lay open the relationships which exist.
Since each socio-economic formation is dominated
by a particular class, the dominant ideas of each epoch
will tend to be ideas developed by that class. In this
sense ideologies have class biases and serve class
interests with most of them serving the needs of the
ruling class. The earlier quote from the Communist
Manifesto brings this out as do passages in almost all
Marxist writings. Consequently, a complete analysis of
^^Quoted in Genovese, Southern and Afro-American History, "On Antonio Gramsci," p. 393.
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any system of ideas ought to include not only the usual
points such as logic, internal consistency, relations
to other schools of thought, etc., found in bourgeois
scholarship, but also such questions as their relation
to the socio-economic base and the interests they serve
in the society where they were b o m or now exist. A
necessary corollary to this position is Marx's well-
known dictum that the scholar should not judge societies
by their own consciousness. The investigator must
carefully take account of that consciousness to achieve
a well-balanced and correct view.
As a final note on ideology, we know that ideas
can be exported to different areas, often with little
or no direct effort. In particular this applies in
cases such as the Virgin Islands where a much more
advanced and powerful society takes over a backward
and unsophisticated one. Thus, we expect to find
imported ideologies, whether they are really applicable
and appropriate or not, playing a very important role
in such situations in contrast to where a less
sophisticated society takes over an advanced and
complex society and is greatly and irretrievably
changed by the social-cultural formation it has "conquered."
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B. Historical Materialism as a Method
The way to use historical materialism - the his
torical materialist method - has received relatively little
attention, especially in contrast to the tremendous
amount of work done on the methodological aspects of
dialectical materialism. Marx's own comments, both vague
and brief, are found in the littie-known Grundrisse der
Kritik der Politischen Okonomie in the section entitled
"The Method of Political Economy," which appears as an
appendix to the Russian edition of A Contribution to the
Critique of Political Economy, and in a volume of selected
translations from the German called simply The Grundisse.
The relevant passage reads.
If we start out, therefore, with population, we do so with a chaotic conception of the whole, and by closer analysis we will gradually arrive at simpler ideas; thus we shall proceed from the imaginary concrete to less and less concrete abstractions, until we arrive at the simplest determinations. This once attained we might start on our return journey until we finally come back to population ; but this time not as a chaotic notion of an integral whole, but as a rich aggregate of many determinations and relations. ...(this) is manifestly the scientifically correct method. The concrete is concrete because it is a combination of many determinations, i.e. a unity of diverse elements. In our thought it therefore appears
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as a process of synthesis, as a result, and not as a starting point, although it is the real starting point and, therefore, also the starting point of observation and conception. By the former method the complete conception passes into a abstract definition; by the latter the abstract definitions lead to the reproduction of the concrete subject in the course of reasoning.52
What we have here is a process of abstraction. It is the
elimination of less important relationships from the con
crete situation to get at the essence of the socio
economic formation in question and then the readmission
of the less essential elements in a reverse process of
reasoning so that in the end the entire socio-economic
formation is illuminated and explained. The procedure
both starts and ends with the appearance of the forma
tion, but the end product is different in that the hier
archy of interconnections by which it is determined by
its own inner "laws of motion" is now evident.53
This abstractive method is a general scientific
one. The physical sciences use it and add controlled
experiments in order to check its results - a procedure
^^Karl Marx, The Grundrisse (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 34-35.
^%itt-Hansen, Book One: The Method, p. 91.
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which is unfortunately impossible in the study of society.
J. Witt-Hansen draws an explicit parallel between the
method of historical materialists and that of physicists.
If one considers the procedure of analysis of objects or of factual material appro priated, one discovers that investigators using the method of historical materialism are, to a certain extent, in a situation similar to that of physicists, since the procedure of abstraction, is recommended and applied by historical materialists and physicists as well. Or, what amounts to the same: as for a mental isolation, or the thinking away of different aspects of the objects investigated is concerned, the analogy between the methods of historical materialism and physics is perfect.54
In studying a given society during a specific period,
leaving aside questions of transition from one socio
economic formation to another, the general process of
abstraction would run something like this :
1) Taking a given society, one cannot account for social reality by looking at biological or physical phenomena. Any physical or biological peculiarity (climate, geography, race) would have to be disregarded at this stage.
2) The next course to suggest itself is to look at the society directly, in terms of its popula tion. But this is incorrect since the population itself is meaningless apart from its character istics (class structure, etc.) which depend on something(s) else.
p. 84 (italics original).
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3) With these first two aspects disregarded, it is material and ideological social rela tions that remain. According to hypothesis one it is being rather than consciousness which is primary so ideological relations can be discarded at this point.
4) At this point only material social relations remain and these are of two kinds: relations of procreation and relations of material production. Since procreation is a general animal character istic and we are seeking to explain the peculiarities of a human society, the relations of material social production suggest themselves as candidates for primary analysis.55
The actual analysis begins with the investigation of
these material relations and the society in question
would be reconstituted in thought admitting all the
elements which were disregarded in the process of
abstraction at their appropriate levels and so making
the lines of cause and dependence clear. When this
process is complete, the investigator arrives back at
the "surface" with as complete and detailed a knowledge
of the workings of the society as his analytical tools
and acuteness of perception permit.
This sort of investigative method has been
recommended by a number of prominent Marxist thinkers.
55This sequence follows Witt-Hansen, pp. 87-88.
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For example, A. Labrlola states in his book on historical
materialism that, " in our doctrine we have not ro
re-translate into economic categories all the complex
manifestations of history, but only to explain in the
last analysis (Engels) all the historic facts by means of
the underlying economic structure (Marx), which neces
sitates analysis and reduction and then interlinking
and construction."56 j.p, Sartre, basing himself on
H. Lefevre's methodological writings, proposes a
"progressive-regressive method" which amounts to
basically the same thing. He quotes Lefevre's method
as consisting of three phases:
(a) Descriptive. Observation but with a scrutiny guided by experience and by a general theory...
(b) Analytico-Regressive. Analysis of reality. Attempt to date it precisely.
(c) Historical-Genetic. Attempt to re discover the present, but elucidated, understood, explained.57
^ Antonio Labriola, Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1966), p. Ill (italics original).
51-52, footnote.
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The above is the most general aspect of the historical
materialist method as it applies to the analysis of a
given socio-economic formation. In the case study it
is not necessary to be nearly so abstract or general
since we are not seeking to explain the evolution of
the entire capitalist socio-economic formation as Marx
did, but only one tiny part of it - the Virgin Islands -
where the relations of material production and all
other social and ideological relations are much simpler
than in the capitalist formation at large. Consequently,
the whole case study will be pitched at a considerably
lower level of abstraction.
The foregoing is the general historical model
and method which will be used in the case study. Before
proceeding with that study, however, the author will
take this opportunity to further clarify the model by
making some observations on the meaning of its terms
and how it will be utilized.
C. Notes on Some Common Misunderstandings and Dogmatisms Surrounding Historical Materialism
A terminological difficulty which comes up often
in the literature on Marxian method is the place of
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"economics" or the "economic factor" as a cause in social
change. This difficulty has become more pronounced,
especially in the West, as the definition of "economics"
has become more and more restricted since the advent of
neo-classicism. In the model just presented, the term
"economics" was avoided and "mode of production," "forces
of production" or "social being" were used where
"economics" might have appeared because these terms
contain much richer significations than those generally
included in the term "economics." This is not so much a
clear and precise contrast as a difference in emphasis.
Beginning with Marx, all creative Marxists have seen
human relationships as society's base no matter how
reified or fetishized they may be. For Marxists,
"capital" is not simply produced means of production,
but a social relation of superordination and subordina
tion dominant in a certain socio-economic f o r m a t i o n . 58
58"However, capital is not a thing, but rather a definite social production relation, belonging to a definite historical formation of society, which is mani fested in a thing and lends this thing a specific social character. Capital is not the sum of the material and produced means of production." Karl Marx, Capital; A Critique of Political Economy (V.I.) (New York: Random House (Modem Library), no date). Vol. Ill, p. 794. Reprint of Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1906 edition.
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It is this focusing on human relationships which gives
the categories of historical materialism much of their
power to comprehend socio-economic evolution as opposed
to a mere cataloging of quantitative indices of so-called
"economic variables." "Mode of production" (or other
Marxian terms) then should not be confused, as they
often are, with some supposed equivalents current in
bourgeois scholarship. These concepts should be taken
on their own terms rather than "translated" into some
more familiar but probably twisted and inaccurate
equivalent.
Another lengthy and generally unenlightening
debate has concerned whether historical materialism -
and Marxism taken as a system - is a "determinist"
doctrine. This is not an "either-or" question although
it is often presented as such. After all, the opposite
of determinism is randomness and it is a contradiction
in terms to speak of history written from a completely
non- or anti-determinist viewpoint. Thus, any history
which deals with the origins and causes of events must
be "determinist" in some measure. The relevant question,
then, is not whether a historical doctrine is determinist
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but rather the extent, or, more precisely, the strictness
of determinist elements in that historical scheme.
Probably the best known strict determinist scheme
is found in Genesis. Here, God's will determines pre
cisely the form and content of the world and all its
creatures. The only possible act of free will in the
Garden was Eve's eating the apple, and since God is
omniscient, it is questionable whether that was an act
of free will or not. Marxism is not remotely as
determinist as religions which recognize an active
omniscient God who both creates the world and intervenes
in it (the case with Judaism and Christianity). A
well-known statement of Marx's can serve as a starting
point on the determinism issue. "Men make their own
history, but they do not make it just as they please;
they do not make it under circumstances chosen by them
selves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given
and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the
dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain
of the living."59 This statement does contain overtones
59Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, p. 10.
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of determinism, but determinism of a particular kind.
The thought here is that we do not know what must happen,
but we do know what cannot take place. Historical
materialism gets at the realm of possible outcomes by
restricting them to a certain range. Thus, development
based on a certain mode of production rules out certain
sequences of events and gives some idea of the relative
probabilities among those not ruled out altogether.
Historical materialism is restrictive rather than
prescriptive, and it will be applied in that spirit
in the case study.
Antonio Gramsci also criticized the idea of
strict determinism from the point of view that historical
materialism cannot predict the future.
Since it ’appears,' by a strange inversion of the perspectives, that the natural sciences provide us with the ability to foresee the evolution of natural processes, historical methodology is 'scientifically' conceived only if, and in so far as, it permits one ’abstractly’ to foresee the future of society. Hence the search for essential causes, indeed for the 'first cause,' for the 'cause of causes.' But the Theses on Feuerbach had already criticised in advance this simplistic conception. In reality one can 'scien tifically’ foresee only the struggle, but not the concrete forces in continuous
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Gramsci also saw that the act of prediction is not
independent of the result predicted since the human
efforts it may call forth will affect the outcome which
would have occurred if no prediction had been made. As
he put it.
In reality one can 'foresee' to the extent that one acts, to the extent that one applies a voluntary effort and therefore contributes concretely to creating the result 'foreseen.' Prediction reveals itself thus not as a scientific act of knowledge, but as the abstract expression of the effort made, the practical way of creating a collective will.61
In this writer's opinion, historical materialism
leaves plenty of room for what Sartre has called the
"irreducibility of human praxis." Most of the creative
Marxist thinkers from Marx himself to such contemporary
figures as G. Lukacs, R. Garaudy, and Sartre himself
have held the opinion that man is more than the sum of
the conditions that produced him and so both he and his
60Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, p. 438. ^kbid.
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Garaudy, for instance, states that, "...man cannot be
reduced to the sum total of the conditions which have
produced him; as man, he exists only by going beyond
them,"62 and in the same work he points out that both
Marx and Lenin valued the "historical initiative" of
the working class "above all."63 Sartre probably
expressed the idea most completely.
Only the project, as a mediation between two moments of objectivity, can account for history; that is, for human creativity. It is necessary to choose. In effect : either we reduce every thing to identity (which amounts to substituting a mechanistic materialism for dialectical materialism) - or we make of dialectic a celestial law which by itself engenders the historical process (and this is to fall back into Hegelian idealism) - or we restore to the individual man his power to go beyond his situation by means of work and action. This solution alone enables us to base the movement of totalization upon the r e a l .64
This writer agrees and so does not consider historical
materialism a strictly determinist model. It is taken
as restrictive, not prescriptive, and enables us to see
62caraudy, Marxism in the Twentieth Century, p. 79.
^^Ibid., p. 11.
^^Sartre, Search for a Method, p. 99 (italics original).
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intelligent opinion about their relative strengths.
For a social scientist, this is enough. It is also very
important not to fall into the trap of labelling or
situating events rather than analyzing them. A stand for
the "irreducibility of human praxis" besides being
philosophically correct in this view carries with it
a methodological advantage. Constant sensitivity to the
twists and subtleties of human action makes it harder
to fall into "situating" which inevitably leads to
gross simplification and errors. Summed up, the attitude
taken here toward historical determinism is similar to
the ancient Greeks' attitude toward Fate as expressed
in an anonymous proverb - "Fate favors him who keeps his
nerve."
The level of abstraction at which all basic theo
retical work is carried out has important implications
for its operational content and the way it is read by
critics. Highly abstract and general systems of thought
have the virtue of great flexibility and coverage but
have the concomitant drawback that they are usually
not very operational and must be elaborated in greater
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detail before they can be put to practical use. His
torical materialism has suffered from this problem since
there has been relatively little creative work done on
the elaboration of this part of Marx's system -
especially since the rise of Leninism and Stalinism
which tended to harden the doctrine into an ideologically
motivated dogma. The highly abstract nature of Marx's
pronouncements has also laid the whole system open to
charges of rigidity and strict determinism, especially
at the hands of unfriendly critics. This is ironic,
especially since these prescriptions were not meant as
operational procedures but as general guides for study.
That Marx and his more creative disciples were not
guilty of the sins of rigidity and strict determinism
has been shown in the comments on determinism already
made, and hopefully the model and case study being
presented here goes some way in helping to make his
torical materialism a more operational means of
investigation.
The place of dialectics in a historical material
ist model needs brief comment. As this writer sees it,
there is absolutely no reason to be bound by the so-called
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"laws" of dialectics as formulated by Engels. These
"laws" have been massively and justly criticized and
probably reflect more the Nineteenth Century's romance
with the idea that natural laws had full equivalents in
the social realm than any real apprehension of natural
and social reality. Other writers were even more guilty
on this score than Engels - such nonsense as Spencer's
"law" of survival of the fittest and Lasalle's iron
"law" of wages are examples - but these do not excuse
Engels nor make it reasonable for modem scholars to
attempt to apply such "laws" in some kind of mechanistic
way to society. This does not mean, however, that
Engels' laws, taken in a more hypothetical and general
sense (especially a methodological sense) are useless.
On the contrary. In this more general sense, they form
an outlook which is essential to the appreciation of
historical evolution.
As Witt-Hansen points out, "...since historical
materialists aspire to a description and explanation of
the development of social phenomena, the method of
dialectic should be applied. According to this method
one should look for and describe relations of mutual
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exclusion and take into account that definite 'new'
social phenomena may furnish a 'resolution' of these
relations."65 The important thought here is that the
"method of dialectic should be applied." Use of the
method, described below, is meant to insure that his
torical materialism remains dynamic, always seeing and
accounting for development, for change. And this
accounting, after all, is a main goal of Marxian
historical scholarship.
There are two basic ideas in dialectics which
are very useful for studying development. The first
is that development takes place through "contradiction."
In Marxian jargon this word carries a peculiar complex
of meanings and implications which are difficult to
understand and fully explain. For this author's pur
poses, the phrases "basic antagonism" and "mutual
exclusivity", while not as dramatic, seem to do justice
to the idea that development is generated internally by
forces contained within the society which are in con
tinual - though not necessarily always active - conflict.
The methodological point derived from this idea is that
^^Witt-Hansen, Book One: The Method, p. 111.
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the investigator should look for those forces in active
or potential conflict within the society he is studying,
identify them, and attempt to diagnose their conflict
and chart its past and present effects on the development
of that society. This description is a generalized
statement, with emphasis on its methodological implica
tions, of Engels’ law of the unity and struggle of
opposites.
The other basic and useful idea from dialectics
is an appreciation of the impermanance, the flux, the
constant coming into being and passing away of social
phenomena. With this general idea in mind the scholar
should be particularly conscious of the general aspect
of change and constantly be looking for signs of growth
in new forms and decay in old ones. This attitude, like
the previous one, is useful in the study of development
in a society over time since development is a particular
instance of the coming into being and passing away of
social phenomena. This, of course, is a generalized
methodological statement of the law of transformation
of quantity into quality.
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Dialectical relations are contained in the con
cept of praxis. It is understandable, perhaps, that
expressions such as "the unity and struggle of opposites"
and "the transformation of quantity into quality" lead
to a feeling that the dialectic operates in some sense
"within" things. While correct as far as it goes, such
a general orientation would overemphasize those aspects
of dialectic. The idea of praxis ensures a more balanced
view, and at the same time emphasizes the role of human
action. Action is obviously based on perception of the
material world, and when action does not achieve its
desired end - is "unsuccessful" - people adjust their
view. This is only the beginning, however. The process
of adjusting a view, what S. Avineri calls "self-change,"
changes reality. Avineri illustrates praxis with
repsect to the development of philosophy and the pro
letariat. Concerning philosophy he says, "As Marx's
epistemology holds that the process of recognizing
reality changes both the observed object and the
observing subject, so philosophy once it has reached
its culmination in providing us with a true picture of
the world, ceases to be philosophy in the traditional
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sense of the word... A philosophy that has reached ade
quate self-consciousness abolishes itself and turns into
reality."66 With reference to the proletariat, Avineri
notes that "Revolutionary praxis has thus a dialectical
aspect. Objectively, it is the organization of the con
ditions leading towards ultimate human emancipation.
Subjectively it is the seIf-change the proletariat
achieves by its self-discovery through organization.
Through its organization the proletariat prepares the
conditions for its self-emancipation."67 Workers come
together because of the reality of their lives, but their
act of association changes both their lives and society.68
Thus, consciousness of praxis helps to reinforce an
emphasis on the importance of human activity in a
dialectical materialist framework.
66s. Avineri, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 136. 67lbid.. p. 143. 68on a more abstract level, Marx noted the same process in his third, eighth and eleventh Theses on Feuerbach:
"The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are
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Another issue often raised about historical
materialism is the extent of its a priori validity.
To a large degree this issue is not relevant to the
model presented here. As Z. Jordan pointed out, "if
it were true to say that Marx was concerned with the
elaboration of a conceptual framework adequate for
the description and analysis of social systems and
social change rather than with a substantive theory
of history, the question of how he justified his
belief in Historical Materialism could not arise at
products of other circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men that change circumstances, and that the educator himself needs educating. Hence this doctrine neces sarily arrives at dividing society into two parts, of which one is superior to society (in Robert Owen, for example).
The coincidence of the changing of cir cumstances of human activity can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolu tionizing practice."
"Social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which mislead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human prac tice and in the comprehension of this practice.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." (In Feuer, Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, pp. 244-245.)
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By now it should be obvious that the model
presented here is largely methodological and so the
issue of its a priori validity is not terribly pressing.
Consequently, we will avoid getting involved in the often
abstruse debate on a priori validity which makes the
by no means self-evident assumption that a rigorous
judgement is possible. Our yardstick will be Engels'
idea that the proof of good theory is successful
practice, in this case whether historical materialism
yields a reasonable and fruitful analysis when applied
to the Virgin Islands case.
"Flexibility" in a model - the ability to
utilize many kinds of information and account for
anomaly in reasonable ways - is a characteristic which
is obviously desirable. Rigid schemata are likely to
do violence to facts in order to give the appearance
of truth to results obtained from a model. Inflexible
theories often become dogmas with catastrophic results -
the Stalinist version of Marxism, the Inquisition of
Spanish Catholicism, and others come readily to mind.
^^Z.A. Jordan, The Evolution of Dialectical Materialism (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1967), p. 298.
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But there are costs of flexibility, too. After a certain
point, which varies in each case, increased flexibility
can mean loss of explanatory power. This over-flexibility
is where the model is explaining too much. By being
extended to overly diverse phenomena, the model may
"account" for them in a formal way but cease to give
really illuminating accounts of any of them. At such a
point the model is becoming over-generalized and
tautological. Flexibility, then, is not an absolute
good and must balance with the need for direction and
coherence.
The model above attempts to strike a balance.
Structure and direction are provided by basing it on
Marx's six hypotheses. Causal elements and interactions
are specified there. At the same time the interactive
influences enable the complexity of reality to be
brought in and the mistake of unilateral causation
avoided. The abstractive and dialectical methods also
play a role in giving flexibility since elements can be
taken out - in the simplifying process - or readmitted -
in the building back up to surface reality - where the
investigator feels appropriate. The role of the
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dialectical method is to focus on effects of interaction
between and within these various elements at the various
levels of abstraction.
There has been a great deal written on the
general subject of laws of social development, and we
have seen that Nineteenth Century social scientists
were fascinated by the idea that invariant social laws
on the order of physical laws could be found. "Progress" -
in the conservative sense of perfection within a given
social structure - greater wealth, technological advance,
and white supremacy were all parts of the mind-set of the
1850-1914 era especially. The mood of post-1914 has
been in sharp contrast. Feelings of pessimism, power
lessness, the organic complexity and basic unmanage
ability of society have been strong and have been
reflected in all fields, philosophy and the arts in
particular. Even science, previously the field of
unregenerate optimists, has been questioned by the
ecology movement. This loss of confidence has been
reflected in language. Those things that the Nineteenth
Century would call "social laws" we would call "tendencies"
or "significant probabilities." This contrast is a
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good example of Plekhanov's "psychology of the epoch,"
the basic mood of historical periods which condition
the way social change is expressed in the ideological
realm.
It is easy to see why the word "law" has become
such a straw man for both Marxian dogmatists and hostile
critics with this background in mind. Dogmatists wish
to defend their concept of Marxian purity, their rigid
dialectic scholasticism, even down to the original
language of Marx and Engels - no matter how outmoded
that language may be. Hostile critics try to make some
kind of linguistic case that Marxism is an inflexible
and strict determinist doctrine by reference to the
writing of these dogmatists, where they are right, and
to the use by Marx and Engels of such words as "law,"
where they are certainly wrong. Creative Marxism is a
highly adaptable system and it is largely the reluctance
of dogmatic Marxists to give up the Nineteenth Century
concept of "law" which has given this basically ir
relevant linguistic criticism such a long and effective
life.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D. Further Specification of the Operational Model; The Stop-Action Method
Up to this point we have been concerned largely
with defining terms, noting the uses of historical
materialism to explain growth and change, and dealing
with certain other methodological issues. We should
now be more specific as to how historical materialism
is used in this study. Aside from the use of historical
materialism to explain growth and change, it is necessary
to be able to describe the state of a society at im
portant points in time to better see and account for
intervening change. Historical materialism can be used
to provide these descriptions - benchmarks, as it were -
if taken in a static sense, as a classification scheme
rather than a dynamic methodology. I.M. Zeitlin gives
such a historical materialist classification scheme in
his book, Marxism; A Re-Examination. This scheme will
be set out, with appropriate modification for the Virgin
Islands case, and then applied in Chapter III to the
Islands' situation in the early 1930's. The system
consists of the following points:
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1) Describe the economic order and production of the society in question.
2) Locate the main classes in the economic structure. Locate also the various sub-classes or strata in the economic structure. What are the relationships between class and race?
3) What are the objective economic interests of classes and strata and how does race impinge on those interests?
4) What is the extent of class and race consciousness?
5) How much and what types of class and race conflict are present?
6) What is the role of the lumpenproletariat?
7) What is the role of political parties and their relationships to classes?
8) Which party or parties are currently in power? What is its or their relationships to the various classes? Who controls the instruments of state coercion?
9) What are the relationships among the major institutional orders of society, e.g. the economic, political, military, legal, religious, etc.?
10) What are the external relations of the society?
11) What is the political theory and practice of each party and what representation do subordinate classes have in the government?
12) What coalitions exist among parties and classes?
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13) What is the role of the charismatic leader?
14) What are the central ideological themes of the society and the interests they tend to serve?
15) What is the role of tradition?
16) What is the size and role of the state bureau cracy? Do some of its functions benefit only certain classes?
17) What role does the legislature play?^®
Zeitlin's questions are particularly useful be
cause they naturally divide themselves into groups re
lating to base and superstructure in order to fully describe
each. Statements one and two delineate the base while
three through seventeen encompass the superstructure.
Using this tool and the method discussed earlier, the
specific procedure used for the case study can be explained.
This procedure can be thought of as alternating static-
dynamic . We will be using Zeitlin's modified scheme to
describe the state of the base and superstructure at cer
tain crucial times (1931, 1961 and 1971). This is the
static or "stop-action" part of the method. The dynamic
aspect of historical materialism is then used to account
Zeitlin, Marxism; A Re-Examination (New York: Van Nostrand, 1967), pp. 152-155.
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for the observed changes in Virgin Islands society between
these dates. This procedure has the advantage of cutting
a fairly long period into more manageable segments while
preserving the subject's unity by keeing the sarrie general
framework of analysis throughout and specifically putting
the major stress on socio-economic change. The approach
attempts to combine desirable elements of the static
approach - the ability to describe a society in as exact
a manner as possible - with those of a dynamic approach -
the ability to see and account for change. Thus what the
method attempts is a solution to a major problem which
confronts historians. It tries to avoid overemphasis on
description of a society at any one time and so not give
the impression of greater stability than is really
present. It also attempts to avoid seeing only change and
so ignoring important continuities and real elements of
stability which are undoubtedly present. Historical
materialism is important here because it gives a way
to order the data for both static and dynamic analysis
and to show how and why the observed changes took place,
and so ties the whole procedure together through a
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consistent approach to the content of the subject. We will
begin in Chapter III with the first stop-action analysis,
the state of the Virgin Islands in 1931.
The years chosen as benchmarks (1931, 1961 and 1971)
are important natural divisions. In the case of 1931,
that year saw the transfer from naval to civilian admin
istration under the Department of the Interior. This
status, albeit with two significant changes, remained
in force until 1970 when the last Interior-appointed
governor left Government House and the first governor
elected by the islanders took office. The year 1931
also saw the beginning of a radically new set of
governmental social and economic policies, policies
which were strikingly similar to the Rooseveltian New
Deal programs inaugurated after 1932. These policies
formed the base of government and private action until
the late 1950's and early 1960's when they were
rendered obsolete by the rapid evolution of the Islands
into a tourist economy. As the author hopes to show,
the 1930's and 1940's were largely socially and
economically stagnant with both economic activity
and social change picking up in the 1950's and really
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booming in the I960's. Consequently, it is important to
chose another benchmark at the end of stagnation and the
beginning of growth. The year 1961 suggests itself not
only because of its place at the start of the rapid
growth period, but also because that was the year of the
beginning of the Ralph Paiewonsky administration, an
administration which covered nearly the entire decade,
and whose policies were extremely important for socio
economic change both during the 1960's and subsequently.
The 1971 stop-action period is chosen as the logical
place to summarize and review the worth of the previous
analysis. It is current, of course, but at the same
time not so up-to-the^minute as to risk a serious or
unnecessary mistake stemming from being too close to
events for clear historical vision. As mentioned above,
the end of 1970 saw the first elective governor take
office and rather than try to analyze and judge this
new and so recent experience, it seems prudent to draw
a line. This is especially true since 1970 was a Census
year and a large part of the 1971 stop-action data is
drawn from the Census - as is also true for the 1931
and 1961 analyses. The 1971 exercise does not appear
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as a separate chapter as the 1931 and 1961 analyses do.
Rather, the questions are answered implicitly in the
chapter on the 1961-1971 period. This was done to
avoid redundancy since the method will have been used
formally in two previous cases.
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THE ISLAND BACKGROUND: SUGAR AND TRADE;
SLAVERY AND FREEDOM TO 1931
A. Danish Rule
The goal of this section is to summarize the main
trends in the history of St. Thomas and St. Croix to 1931,
fourteen years after their purchase by the United States
and the occasion of the transfer from naval to civilian
administration. The purpose of this summary is to set
the stage for detailed analysis of the post-1931 period,
the time-span of primary interest. Here the two islands
are treated separately to sketch their unique character
istics and then their common aspects are considered. The
summary will cover four general areas: the evolution of
the economy, the social structure, colonial government
and cultural development.
St. Thomas began its economic life as a sugar
island. This phase was short lived, however, as the
poor soil, steep slopes and erratic rainfall quickly made
79
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sugar an unprofitable crop. The decline of sugar
resulted in appeals by the islanders to the Danish Crown
for relief which was granted in the form of a modified
free port status in 1764.1 This encouragement to com
merce removed any further impetus to agricultural develop
ment, and St. Thomas became a commercial colony centered
on shipping. Free port status brought prosperity which
lasted until around 1880, with St. Thomas becoming a
transshipment center for the entire Caribbean area.
Since slavery was associated primarily with plan
tation economies in the Caribbean, the number of slaves is
a rough measure of the importance of agriculture on a
particular island. We find that, with similar popula
tions, St. Croix had 26,000 slaves in 1800 while St.
Thomas had only 3 ,500.2 This basic unsuitability of St.
Thomas for plantation agriculture and the resulting early
decline of slavery there removed a basic cause of the
social unrest that periodically broke out in insurrection
^F. Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), p. 112.
2j .A. Jarvis, Brief History of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas: The Art Shop, 1938), p. 48.
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on St. Croix. This is not to say that the social system
of St. Thomas was just or egalitarian. It was, in fact,
highly stratified and oppressive. But the most obvious
and radical gulf between people - slave versus master -
was only a minor aspect of St. Thomian society and so
both the objective condition of slavery and the sub
jective oppression it caused were less strong there.
Abandonment of the land was completed just after emanci
pation in 1848 when the few agricultural slaves remaining
were absorbed in commercial activities following the
granting of freedom.
The St. Thomian economy revolved around the port
of Charlotte Amalie. Charlotte Amalie had the advantages
of being a free port (actually there was a flat tariff of
67o ad valorem, but this low rate made St. Thomas essen
tially free in relation to other Caribbean ports) and
being one of the finest harbors in the Lesser Antilles.
The latter was quite important since most Caribbean ports
are blocked by reefs and so all cargo must be lightered
in from ships anchored beyond the reefs at considerable
cost. Although no employment statistics exist, the jobs
attaching to such an economy are obvious. Stevedores,
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both for cargo and coaling (there was an important coaling
station and most of the coal carriers were women), ware
housemen, factors, clerks, merchants, chandlers, sailors
and so forth were primary workers along with the sec
ondary jobs which are found in any commercial community
(government officials, professionals, clergy, etc.).
The decline of St. Thomas was the decline of
Charlotte Amalie port, technological change in trans
portation and communication being its basic causes. The
invention of the wireless telegraph soon made St. Thomas
cable facilities, which had been large, obsolete. The
transition from coal to oil as primary fuel for ships
nearly eliminated St. Thomas as a coaling s t a t i o n . 3
During the 1880's two of the most important shipping
companies, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and the
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, transferred their
operations away from St. Thomas.^ From this point St.
Thomas sank into a permanent depression which lasted,
with minor fluctuations, until the 1950’s.
3d .'D. Creque, The U.S. Virgins and the Eastern Caribbean (Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 1968), p. 40.
^Ibid., p. 41.
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St. Croix's economic evolution to 1931 can be
summed up in one word - sugar. Thus, the prosperity of
St. Croix parallels that of many other Caribbean sugar
islands. Denmark purchased the island in 1733, and by
the 1740's rapid plantation development had begun. In
1755 the population was about 10,200 (9,000 were slaves)^
while by 1773 population had more than doubled to 24,635,
of which 22,344 were slaves, 2,136 were white and 155
were free blacks.^ The meteoric rise of St. Croix
continued until 1796 which was the peak of prosperity -
the highest level of sugar prices - although the peak of
sugar production was not reached until 1812-1814.7
There were never many permanent resident Danes on St.
Croix. By the nineteenth century, the Danes were out
numbered about five to one by English, Scotch and Irish
planters. Consequently, English became the language of
everyday social, commercial and educational life with
Danish used only in official government business.^
^Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, p. 106.
^Ibid., p. 166.
^Ibid., p. 211.
^Creque, Eastern Caribbean, p. 43.
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Prosperity for St. Croix's planters was soon cut
short. After 1820 sugar prices began a long decline and
beet sugar soon developed as a potent competitor against
cane. The effects on St. Croix were serious and un
avoidable . Plantation bankruptcies became common and
some planters tried to substitute cattle raising for
cane growing, a strategy often tried since, but one that
has never worked well. Population figures illustrate the
decline. In 1815 the population was 28,650; by 1846 it
had dropped to 24,065 and by the time of transfer (1917)
was about 15,000.^ These declines can be seen in their
proper light if compared to the eighteenth century
increases cited above. For a small island with a fragile
economy they indicate rapid and unarrestable deterioration.
The social structure during the Danish period was
generally simple and stable with certain inter-island
differences directly traceable to production relations
on the two islands. It was the common West Indian
pattern. A small white ruling class, a mulatto "free
colored" middle class and a great mass of working class
black laborers (sometimes free, sometimes slaves) at the
^Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, p. 222.
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bottom. In general there was a high correlation between
power, wealth and whiteness - three variables definitely
not independent of each other. St. Thomas, being com
mercial and largely urban, tended to have the larger
mulatto group and even the black workers tended to have
"an enlarged self-respect, a vigorous individualism, a
self-confidence, all of them well-known components of
urbanized life-styles. On the other hand, "The
Crucian land worker was ruled by a planter set with more
seignorial attitudes... The bitter struggle of master and
slave was followed after 1848 (emancipation, WJK), by
the equally bitter struggle between employer and
servant..
Social stability was maintained by a modified
carrot-and-stick policy. That is, the carrot was always
less important than the stick, and what little carrot
there was went to the mulatto group. Danish policy
consciously sought to elevate free colored elements both
before and after 1848. The ultimate expression of this
policy was the royal edict of 1831 which enabled free
^^G.K. Lewis, "The Myth of Danish Culture," Virgin Islands View (August, 1967), p. 2.
l^Ibid., p. 2.
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mulattoes to be declared white and registered as such for
legal purposes. So social equality was provided to those
free coloreds who "by a cultivated mind and good conduct
render themselves deserving to stand, according to rank
and station in life, on an equal footing with the white
inhabitants..."^2 Some scholars have said this liberalism
showed true concern for the blacks and desire for a free,
integrated and egalitarian society. This is doubtful.
The goal was more likely "divide and conquer," to
guarantee the loyalty of middle class mulattoes to the
white rulers rather than the black masses. Since slaves
outnumbered whites by as much as ten to one, a divide and
conquer motive is certainly plausible. The divide and
conquer can also be illustrated by the "stick" aspect
referred to above.
First of all, the Danes actively participated in
the slave trade. Second, "The trade in its turn became
the basis of a slave economy as monstrous, for what it
meant in the daily life of the bond Negro, as any in the
New World. The St. Thomian planters certainly treated
^^V.A. Hill, Rise to Recognition (St. Thomas: N.P., 1971), p. 35. Quotation is from edict.
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their slaves far more harshly than the Spanish in neigh
boring Puerto Rico, and Governor Gardelin's slave mandate
of 1733 reflected in its awful severity the paranoiac fear
of conspiracy that was the natural result of such treat
ment. ”13 The "awful severity” included, among other
provisions, death (after torture with hot irons) for
being a leader of runaways - the followers were to have
a leg cut off - or an ear and 150 stripes "if the owner
pardons him.” To threaten a white person also brought
torture and hanging, and any slave who did not step
aside and wait for a white to pass was flogged.14 These
draconian measures produced insurrection on St. John the
same year. This revolt was so destructive and the
resistance to re-enslavement on the part of the revo
lutionaries so strong that St. John's economy never
recovered. Neither did its population as many of the
rebels committed suicide rather than submit to the
^^Lewis, "Danish Culture,” p. 2.
^^Charles Edwin Taylor, Leaflets from the Danish West Indies (London: Wm. Dawson and Sons, 1888), p. 101.
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expeditionary force of French, Danes, and free colored
St. Thomians who eventually retook the i s l a n d . 15 Slaves
on St. Croix rose in 1740, were foiled just before
another attempt in 1759, and finally achieved freedom
in 1848 by a mass demonstration and threats of violence
(although none was used).16 The success of the 1848
rising was due to the masterful organizing of Moses
Gottlieb, the slave leader known as "General Bordeaux"
or "General Buddhoe," and the fact that Governor Von
Scholten was basically sympathetic to emancipation.
Emancipation, however, did little to change the
blacks' conditions of life. Both St. Thomas and St.
Croix adopted repressive labor codes designed to ensure
the continued subjugation of the black masses. Provisions
of the St. Thomas code included:
The remuneration to the labourers and servants shall be a matter of arrangement between the parties - it may consist of houses and grounds for cultivation and the priviledges hitherto granted, with or without certain wages according to the circumstances as may be agreed upon between the parties.
^%ill. Rise to Recognition, pp. 19-20.
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As to the right of punishment granted by the laws, it shall be lawful for the employer or manager of Estates, instead of exercising themselves the said right, to submit the same to the Policemaster. On the larger estates the Policemaster shall appoint some of the most trustworthy labourers as Constables, whose duty it shall be under the inspection of the employer or manager to maintain order and suppress vagrancy, and in the case of need, to bring the offender before the Policemaster...
Each house-servant shall have an authorized book of reference as to their character, in which the employer has to declare on their behavior and disposition, whenever they quit service.
All persons who according to the regulations hereby given are bound to engage themselves as servants or labourers, and without any valid excuse do not comply with the Police master ' s order to that effect, will be considered vagrants and be imprisoned on bread and water or punished more severely according to the circumstances.^^
The 1849 Labor Act for St. Croix was more important since
it covered the great majority of the population. Its
provisions included:
The contract (for the full year) could be broken only by the mutual consent of the master and laborer before a magistrate, or by order of a magistrate on 'just and equitable cause being shown by the parties interested'.
^^Quoted in Hill, Rise to Recognition, pp. 42-43.
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The working day commenced at sunrise and ended at sunset with one hour for breakfast and two hours at noon from twelve to two o'clock. Laborers were divided into three classes by the masters. A first class laborer received fifteen cents a day, a second class laborer, ten cents a day, and a third class laborer, five cents a day. When the laborer received an allowance of commeal and herrings daily, twenty-five cents a week was deducted for this food.
'The laborer shall be given, or receive legal notice of removal from the estate where he serves, before any one can engage his services; otherwise the new contract to be void, and the party engaging in tampering with a laborer employed by others, will be dealt with according to l a w . . . '18
It took a while for the illusions of emancipa
tion to dissolve, but as neither the social nor economic
status of the masses on St. Croix improved, tensions
again began to build. As an American visitor described
the state of the Island (in 1864), "...we spent ten weeks
on the Island of St. Croix, and should we bring before
the view of the reader all the misery, wretchedness and
debauchery we have seen during our lives, it could bear
no comparison to what we saw on the Island of St. Croix
^^Quoted in Hill, Rise to Recognition, pp. 43-45.
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alone."19 In 1878 the laborers rose under "Queen Mary,"
a woman field worker, and destroyed almost all the
plantations on the western two-thirds of the Island. The
laborers' grievances centered around the oppressive
provisions of the 1849 Labor Act. At the beginning of
the insurrection, a white parson, the Rev. J.C. duBois,
addressed the crowd in an attempt to calm them and get
them to present their grievances peacefully. According
to C.E. Taylor,
This they agreed to do, after much murmuring among themselves, and then two or three of the more intelligent among them, stepped forward and stated their complaints. Firstly, the low rate of wages given to the estate labourers in comparison to the larger amount given to those of the Central Factory (the main sugar mill, WJK), vis., ten cents against thirty cents. Secondly, the annual contract, which they pronounced to be slavery, inasmuch as if the slightest mistake were made in the date of giving notice for a termination of the contract, they were compelled to remain on that estate for another year contrary to their will. Thirdly, the power given by the law to a manager to fine for certain offences, and
^^Rachel Wilson Moore, Journal of Rachel Wilson Moore Kept During a Tour to the West Indies and South America in 1863-64. With Notes from the Diary of Her Husband; Together With His Memoir, by George Truman, M.D. (Philadelphia: T. Ellwood Zell, Publisher, 1867), p. 104.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their frequent abuse of that prerogative, and lastly the difficulties thrown in the way of labourers leaving the island by the police authorities, such as compelling them to exhibit what money they had when they wanted
Regarding this last, Lewisohn notes that one of the "valid
complaints" was that the authorities made sure as few
ships as possible were in port on contract-signing day so
that laborers had to sign for another year or be arrested
for vagrancy as they would have no job while waiting for
passage off the i s l a n d . 21 These grievances were not
racial, but almost wholly economic. Although the revolt
lasted several days and most of the island, including the
town of Frederiksted, was in the hands of the rioters,
only three whites were killed. These three were all
adult men, two being armed soldiers and the third a
planter who had a particularly bad reputation among the
l a b o r e r s . 22 These facts tend to show the class rather
than racial nature of violence on St. Croix. Taylor,
whose nearly contemporary account is quite unsympathetic
20Taylor, Danish West Indies, p. 154.
2lLewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, p. 309.
22ïaylor, Danish West Indies, p. 155.
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to the workers, almost inadvertently drops a particularly
revealing statement on the class nature of the struggle.
Describing the confusion in Christiansted as news began
to filter through about the burnings at Frederiksted and
in the country districts, he relates, "The wildest stories
were afloat, and everyone seemed ready to believe them;...
the rioters had armed themselves with muskets and other
firearms, stolen from the stores in West End; the rumours
that it was a deeply laid plot to destroy all the white
and colored inhabitants in the town,..."23 (author's
emphasis). The significance of this is simply that the
class status of the colored (mulatto) population was
similar to the white and was so perceived by both the
black workers in revolt and the mulattoes themselves.
Negro blood in a mulatto planter's or merchant's veins
did not matter. Their property was burned along with
everyone's who lived from the proceeds of land and
capital rather than labor.
The 1878 insurrection was put down with relatively
little bloodshed. Twelve rioters were executed (after
court martials) although up to 72 more may have been more
^^Ibid.. p. 161.
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informally dealt with.24 Although the revolt did succeed
in removing some of the more onerous provisions of the
1849 Labor Act, the basic employer-servant split remained,
and so did the distribution of power. The transition was
a step much like that of serf to proletarian.
Minor revisions in the Labor Act did not greatly
change the day-to-day repression. In 1906 the Royal
Danish West India Gendarmerie Corps was organized to
replace the West Indian Military Force. These police
enforced a whole range of repressive laws, "...that
sought to control public behavior, from conspiracy and
disobedience to masters to whistling and loud singing on
the streets..."^^ Enforcement methods were pointed,
"...the usual way of carrying such a person (one who had
been arrested, WJK) to the fort was to tie both his hands
together with strong rope, and attach the free end of the
rope to the saddle of a horse ridden by the Gendarme.
Sometimes if the prisoner was suspected of being recal
citrant, the horse was made to trot and the poor victim.
24Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, p. 324.
25Lewis, "Danish Culture," p. 3.
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of either sex, was dragged toward the Fort."26 As G.K.
Lewis put it, these inumerable laws and brutal police
methods, "...suggests the continuing existence of a sort
of civil war between a resentful populace and a straight-
laced alien bureaucracy."27
Thus, although class struggle was often intense,
the white ruling class and their mulatto allies were
never overthrown. Nor could they have been. Whenever
disaster seriously threatened, the arms of the other
colonial powers in the area were ready to assist the often
inept Danes in maintaining control.
The white creole merchants and planters stood
just below the governor and his white Danish staff in
status and power. They were provincial, narrow-minded
and extremely conservative. We have already seen how
their policies helped to provoke rebellion, and the
attitudes on which these policies were based extended to
all spheres of public affairs. They opposed all types of
public expenditure designed to improve the common lot
because of their desire for low taxes. Over the years
26h 111, Rise to Recognition, p. 56.
^^Lewis, "Danish Culture," p. 3.
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they opposed a Communal Physician - on the grounds of
expense - municipal electricity - on the grounds that
most people went to bed between eight and nine o'clock -
limitations on the twelve to fourteen hour workday - on
the grounds that the workers would have "more time to
spree in" - and so forth.28 These attitudes produced few
progressive initiatives. In fact, technological and
social progress often was brought in by the large foreign
firms headquartered in St. Thomas, by some relatively
liberal governors and their Danish officials, and by
the periodic direct action of the masses.
The constitution of the Virgins to 1917 went
through several phases. Until 1852 the governor
exercised all powers. In that year a Colonial Law was
proclaimed giving the local whites some representation,
but the law was extensively revised in 1863. This 1863
Colonial Law remained in force until 1936 with certain
small revisions in 1906. Under this regime, the Virgin
Islands were divided into two municipalities, St. Croix
and St. Thomas-St. John and each had its elected Colonial
28Ibid.. pp. 3-4.
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C o u n c i l . 29 The Councils had limited but significant
powers. They had nearly full legislative and fiscal
powers although all laws had to be approved by the King,
who continued to appoint the g o v e r n o r . 30 There were also
a series of commissions made up of Council members which
oversaw executive departments.31 The governor, inciden
tally, appointed thirty percent of the members of each
C o u n c i l . ^ 2
The governor had considerable powers. He could
issue provisional laws for short periods, declare a state
of siege and "exercise unlimited power," could dissolve
or postpone the Councils, propose laws and amend
proposals, and had an item veto over money b i l l s . ^3
This form of government was actually an oligarchy - a
result achieved through a male property franchise. The
law read.
Colonial Law for the Danish West India Islands, Amalienborg 6th April, 1906 (St. Thomas : Government Printing Office, 1924) (Translation), Sec. 10.
30lbid., Secs. 1, 3, 46.
3^Ibid.. Sec. 63.
^^Ibid.. Sec. 14.
33ibid.. Secs. 4, 12, 36, 58.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The franchise or right of voting is vested in every man of unblemished character, who had the right of nativity or had resided in the Danish West India Islands for five years; who had attained the age of 25 years, who has not been legally deprived of the management of his property, and who either owns a property in the municipality that is calculated likely to yield a yearly rent of at least 300 francs in St. Croix and St. John and of at least 700 francs in St. Thomas, or in the preceding year has had a clear annual income of 1500 Frcs. He must, moreover, have resided at least 2 years in the municipality and 6 months within the elective district in which he sojourns at the time the election takes place, and his name must be on the list of persons entitled to vote.34
This law effectively included the entire working class,
which, as the author has pointed out, was coincident
with the black population. Considering the fact that
women could not vote, the franchise was invested in
about five to ten percent of the adult population. 35
Thus, political power was tightly held by the planters
and merchants who controlled all local affairs not
specifically pre-empted by the King through the governor.
The Virgin Islands have been exposed to a large
variety of cultures, but culture has been shallow and
^^Creque, Eastern Caribbean, p. 37.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. imitative among all groups. The white merchants' interests
were in business. As Lewis related, "The average business
man...was a shopkeeper with little sense of humor but
possessed of a certain dry sharpness of his own, not
much interested in poetry, music or literature, and
infinitely preferring to converse about the latest specula
tions in sugar or go home satisfied after a good day's
transactions with his Santo Domingo purchasers."36 The
planters often had much grander pretensions but on the
whole their manner of life and entertainment was simply
copied from what they saw as European country squire
life-style. In any case, they neither produced writers,
artists, nor other cultural figures, nor patronized any.
The mulatto middle class may have been the most culturally
deprived group of all. They suffered the cultural fate
of all groups who are neither fish nor fowl, in this
case Afro-Caribbean or European. Lewis puts it suc-
cintly, "Free Coloreds, like their counterparts else
where in the Caribbean, becameefchown"assmore^giVen’to
lavish social display than to radical mental activity."37
36Lewis, "Danish Culture," p. 3.
37im^., p. 2.
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The cultural history of the black majority is more
complex. As slaves, they frequently came from highly
developed cultures in West Africa. Ashanti, Amina and
others were brought over and naturally attempted to resist
cultural obliteration. However, "By persistence, crafti
ness, domineering and ruthless practices, the white
colonists achieved the almost complete raping of African
culture, morals, religion and society to which the slaves
had been accustomed."38 in this, Danish slavery strongly
resembles slavery in the Old South. Family structure was
attacked, and slave marriages were discouraged. At the
same time, sexual promiscuity was not condemned. Black
Virgin Islanders developed no folk music or folk
literature of their own although drum dances such as the
bamboula and mocktin were preserved until the 1 8 5 0 's.39
Soon after Emancipation, a strong aversion to
manual labor grew up which still exists. The aversion is
based on the association of manual labor with slave labor.
As Jarvis noted during the early part of the American
38nill, Rise to Recognition, p. 31.
39j .a . Jarvis, The Virgin Islands and Their People (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1944), p. 162.
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period, "Everybody wants to be a stenographer or a plain
typist. Carpenters throw down hammer and saw to study
shorthand, with only a fourth grade background. Cooks
leave their pots and pans for pot hooks and touch
typing."40
There was no autonomous religious development.
"The Negro slaves of the Virgin Islands...had little or
no incentive toward any typically Negro forms of worship
in religion...They were duly constituted Moravians,
Anglicans, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Dutch Reformed
and all the other denominations patronized by their
masters."41 Missionaries, especially the Moravians,
were permitted to evangelize as early as 1731. All
scholars agree that missionary work was permitted by the
authorities because they felt Christianity would promote
social stability. As Jarvis put it, "The Moravians,
encouraged by the Danish State, and the great stock
holders in the West India Company, who felt that the
benign influence of the doctrine which the United Brethren
preached would be a fine sedative for the fractious
40lbid.. p. 160.
41jarvis, Virgin Islands, p. 54.
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Negroes who did not seem fully to appreciate what a good
thing was being done to them, were enthusiastic over the
opportunity (to evangelize) ."42 Both the Lutherans (the
Danish State Church) and the Moravians condoned slavery
and the Moravians actually operated estates with slaves
owned by the church - although their estates were run in
an unusually humane w a y . 43 Thus, religion was a highly
conservative force in the Virgin Islands and was success
fully used as a principal form of social control.
There was almost no preservation of African
religion in the form of Voodoo or Mocambo. The only
non-Christian beliefs and practices extant take the form
of Obeah, a negative mishmash of superstition and black
magic practiced individually and secretly on many
Caribbean islands. As Jarvis described it.
Most strangers are unaware of the dark currents of native life, and they never suspect the amount of fetishism, necromancy and plain poisoning that goes on under their upturned noses. Obi, or obeah, as it is called in the Virgin Islands, is the study and practice of unorthodox medicine combined with witchcraft...The common ingredients for the obeahman includes strange
^2jarvis, Virgin Islands, p. 58.
43Ibid., p. 59. Lewis, "Danish Culture," p. 3.
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herbs and roots, black, red and white clays, menstrual waste, feces, ground glass, bacteria colonies and disease smears, rare and potent drugs. Direct slow poisoning through con taminated food or water, infected garments, infected body parasites, doctored centipedes, tarantulas, scorpions and lizards, or even 'dressed' hats, drinking glasses, bottles and tools are methods of reaching a person to be injured. Letters with disease-bearing lice and bed bugs are c o m m o n . 44
Sometimes even the most skeptical of judges must wish that he could get sufficient evidence of crime to punish a woman who tries to keep her husband's love by sitting naked over a pot of stewed rice so that perspiration and body fluids drain into the food...Married men are fed this 'sweated rice' to keep them h o m e . 45
This sort of dark practice hardly fills the spiritual
side of culture the way Voodoo, Mocambo or African
religions proper do by providing a more well-rounded
faith with more positive features.
This culture-poor environment, discussed more
fully in a subsequent chapter completely devoted to
cultural development, with the destructive fact of
slavery at its center produced that peculiar person -
the Virgin Islander. Through the comments of various
44jarvis, Their People, pp. 118 and 126.
45ibid., p. 122.
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authors and with the social and cultural background based
on slave economy and colonial commerce just described, the
often noticed characteristics of native Virgin Islanders
become reasonably explicable. As Jarvis noted.
People who have been property themselves can have little regard for the property of others, or any sense of property value. They must also regard labor as a degrading thing. They shun everything that suggests servitude. The harder their lot during involuntary bondage, the deeper becomes their aversion to restraint or routine upon the conclusion of their slavery. The Virgin Islander of today (1938, WJK) is a good example of the working out of the preceding laws.46
And G.K. Lewis attempts to sum up,
...slavery left behind a series of social prejudices that still remain firmly en trenched in the Virgin Islander. There was the aversion to work always identified with slavery; the feeling that to be able to command attendance, from a social inferior or a juvenile apprentice or a house servant, was the height of gentility; the love of extravagance, since slavery failed to generate any sense of the real value of things; the unblushing readiness to solicit charity, even on the part of those well able to do without it; all of it leading to a spirit of social and personal irresponsibility... It is still the overt prestige value of a job, not work performance, that is important. The economical use of leisure is still not much
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appreciated and leads to much ridicule of the hard-playing 'continentals.' There is a 'get- rich- quick' mentality but the average Virgin Islander is more likely to satisfy it through dreams about finding hidden pirate treasure - on which topic there is a whole wealth of local folklore - than through the cultivation of the virtues of thrift and industry.47
B. Transfer and Navy Rule
The first fourteen years of American jurisdiction
under the U.S. Navy (1917-1931) form part of the back
ground study. This is because under close examination we
find no changes of deep social or economic significance
from the Danish period. So, after a short description of
the Navy regime, the more detailed study of development
starting in 1931 is taken up in the next chapter.
A great deal has been written about the 1917
Transfer, possibly because the sale of territory by one
sovereign nation to another is a rather rare happening.
American interest in the Virgin Islands goes back to
1867, when the U.S. made an offer of $7,500,000 for St.
Thomas and St. John. The deal fell through, however,
when Grant opposed the treaty which had been negotiated
47Lewis, "Danish Culture," p. 3.
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under Secretary of State S e w a r d . 48 Another unsuccessful
attempt was made in 1902; this time the Danish Landsthing
(upper house) rejected the offer. Successful negotiations
were started in 1915 under the pressure of probable war.
A German shipping concern - the Hamburg-America Line -
had been operating out of St. Thomas for some years and it
was feared the Germans might take over Denmark and turn
St. Thomas into a naval base to disrupt shipping going
through the Panama Canal. The United States exerted
considerable pressure on Denmark - including threatening
occupation of the Virgin Islands - and offered
$25,000,000 (the Danes at first held out for $27,000,000
but later gave in), and negotiations were concluded on
August 4, 1916.^^ There were some difficulties con
cerning ratification in Denmark, but they were overcome
fairly easily and the actual transfer was made on
March 31, 1917. Although no plebiscite was held, there
is no doubt that the great majority of Islanders were
in favor of Transfer. An official Danish parliamentary
commission wrote in 1916 that,
48creque, Eastern Caribbean, p. 56.
49im^., p. 65.
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There is also a strong concurrent motive for the sentiments of the great majority, and this is predominant in all classes on the islands, that is, that they feel themselves foreign to Denmark and closely united to the North American Free States, through language, interests, and communications. This applies no less to the negro population who wish union with the great American negro nationals numbering ten millions of people...to reject the treaty now against the wish, as good as unanimously expressed by the West Indian population, will without doubt cause difficulties for Denmark in the future... 50
The acquisition of the Virgin Islands was not
motivated by traditional imperialist designs. The
Islands were poor in resources, population and wealth
so there was nothing there to exploit. That acquisition
was for military reasons is best brought home by the fact
that after World Was I was over, the Virgin Islands were
promptly forgotten. For many years they were to suffer
what G.K. Lewis (referring to Puerto Rico) has called
the "imperialism of neglect." Jarvis tells a charming
if somewhat dismal tale on this subject. In 1922 the
Report of the Danish Parliamentary Commission Appointed in Accordance With Law No. 294 of September 30, 1916 in Relation to the Danish West Indian Islands. General Files 1927-1932, No. 64. Records of the Govern ment of the Virgin Islands of the United States, Record Group 55, National Archives Building, pp. 4-5.
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Colonial Council of St. Thomas sent a three-man delegation
to Washington to petition for relief from the disastrous
economic conditions then prevailing. When they reached
Washington they found that, "Except for a few Navy
officials, no one knew anything about the Virgin Islands.
Even at the State Department, executives had classified
this Caribbean group as part of the Philippines. The
delegates saw how great was the task of awakening suf
ficient interest to make the trip worthwhile, so they
trudged wearily from one vast building to another, un
sponsored, and buffeted by harsh secretarial winds.
Eventually a few newspapermen saw their plight and
dubbed them 'Orphan Islanders.' What little sympathy
these three colored men received from the Navy Department
and the White House was perfunctory and of small
service."51
The condition of the Virgin Islands at the time
of Transfer was "grave" according to the first Naval
Governor, Rear-Admiral Oliver. His 1917 report is a
dreary picture of a society in advanced stages of decay.
Medical care, hygiene and sanitation were primitive.
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"...the infant mortality being particularly disgraceful to
a civilized community."52 General health was so poor
that, "...he (the naval medical officer) doubts that
enough physically sound men to recruit a single company
of infantry could be found in the three islands."53
Agriculture was depressed and very little food was being
grown. Public institutions were ridiculous. The prison
facilities were medieval and, "...public instruction in
these islands leaves about everything in the way of an
adequate system to be desired."54 Public finances were
very confused and running at a considerable deficit.
The Act of March 3, 1917 setting up U.S. juris
diction over the Virgins adopted the Colonial Law of 1906
as the basic law of the Islands. Thus, the Naval
Governor was in an analagous position to the former
Danish governors. He was appointed by the President and
held, "all military, civil and judicial powers necessary to
52james H. Oliver, Annual Report, 1917, General Files No. 17, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C., p. 2.
^^Ibld.. p. 33.
5^Ibld., p. 27.
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g o v e r n . "55 Like the Danish governors, he also had the
power to appoint judges, appoint one-fourth to one-third
of the members of the Colonial Councils, dissolve the
Councils, propose laws and budgets, and have full
authority to appoint and dismiss his administrative
staff.56
The role of the Colonial Councils remained the
same under the Navy administration, and the property
franchise was continued. The only change was in the
amount of income ($300) or amount of rental income ($60
per year in St. Croix; $150 per year in St. Thomas)
necessary to qualify. Luther Harris Evans, who is very
unsympathetic to the natives' struggle for representative
government, blandly states that, "These qualifications
have restricted the electors of St. Thomas and St. John
to... an average of about 750 in the past ten years and St.
Croix to... an average of about 475 for the same period.
For the combined municipalities the electorate is
approximately 5.5% of the population. "57
55Luther Harris Evans, The Virgin Islands: From Naval Base to New Deal (Ann Arbor: J.M. Edwards, 1945), p. 71 (Quotation is from the Act.).
^^Ibid., pp. 71-78.
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The Navy's policies and administration during its
fourteen years was cautious, unimaginative and generally
inadequate. The spirit in which it approached colonial
administration might be called the "run a tight ship"
attitude. Thus, its primary concern was to make the
place clean, neat and sanitary. It helped regularize
the water supply by improved catchment methods, improved
medical services greatly, started a sewer and public
toilet program, and generally treated the Islands as one
would expect Navy men to react if they were put on a
tramp steamer. Needless to say, under these circumstances -
and others which will be noted - the Navy had neither the
talent nor the inclination for social reform or economic
development. As Lewis pointed out when discussing the
Navy period, "There had been a fatal imbalance of
priorities, so that the preponderance of federal monies
had been spent on items purely punitive or palliative -
police and prison services, hospitals, insane asylums,
poor relief payments and so o n . "58 Governor Hough put
it even more briefly in 1923 when a delegation of both
workers and merchants petitioned him for government action
5^0.K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands. A Caribbean Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 61.
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to promote employment and aid the poor. He simply told
them, "Live the best way you c a n . "59
A prime ingredient of the Navy's social policy
was American-style racism. The Danish regime was racist,
but it was a Caribbean racism b o m of the fact that whites
were a tiny minority. Thus, the mulatto middle class was
given privileges and rights far above those of the black
masses. American racism was different in both style and
content. It was the aggressive style of the early
twentieth century South. Jarvis pictures the American
period's inauspicious beginning, "The first night the
Marines landed, the Negroes felt the heel of race
prejudice, for one of the 'leathernecks' kicked an
inoffensive black man into a deep gutter to the accompa
niment of sulphurous language slurring his parentage and
color...In content it was the impermeable color bar.
"Even worse, however, was the fact that for the period of
its rule in the Virgin Islands the Navy was a totally
segregated service, having adopted a policy of total
^^Jarvis, Virgin Islands, p. 136.
^Qlbid., p. 141.
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racial exclusion in 1920 which was only partly relaxed
in 1932. The supreme irony was that an all-white service
was granted the power to rule over an overwhelmingly
black civil population. The Virgin Islanders suffered
the humiliation of being governed by a federal service
which they themselves could not join."^^ Nor was this all.
"of course, black people and people known to be of Negro
descent never enjoyed any hospitality there (at the
Governor's house), either in their (Governor Hough's)
time or with any other American Naval G o v e r n o r . "62 This
was all quite shocking to the natives since public
accommodations, government facilities, and churches
were never segregated under the Danes. The Navy seemed
to think like the title of an 1890's popular song -
"All Coons Look Alike To Me."
Navy racism could be subtle, too. One of the
Navy's programs lauded by almost every observer was the
medical program run by naval doctors and nurses. Real
gains were made, especially in infant mortality where the
death rate was substantially reduced. Yet even this kind
^^Hill, Rise to Recognition, p. 72.
^^Jarvis, Virgin Islands, p. 136.
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of objectively useful program was shot through with
racism. Herbert Brown, chief of the now defunct Bureau
of Efficiency of the U.S. Government, must have been
writing from a wounded sense of efficiency when he wrote
in his 1930 report that,
...the Navy doctors and Navy nurses are not devoting anything like the number of hours to their work that nurses and doctors in civil life elsewhere spend on their duties. We hesitate to seem hypercritical but the fact remains that a schedule of 28 hours a week...would hardly seem sufficient to get the best results in a nurses' training school in the United States.
By way of explanation Brown later speculated that.
It may not be a fair conclusion but one seems to sense a certain degree of super ciliousness, as if the health problems of this particular kind of population in this particular part of the world were not perhaps a matter of great importance in itself.64
Certainly a statement that implies racism as the root
problem.
One should not single out the Navy as the racist
viIlian, however. This was still the era of lynching
^%erbert D. Brown, Report on Political, Social and Economic Conditions in the Virgin Islands (Washington, unpublished, 1930, Rare Book Division, Library of Congress), pp. 264-265.
^^Ibid., p. 266.
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and unblushing white supremacy. The Navy was probably no
worse, and may have been somewhat better because of the
constraints imposed by the military code of conduct,
than other American institutions of the time.
Journalistic accounts by American newspapermen
often reflected bigotry at its worst. A certain Daniel
Henderson wrote a generally sympathetic account of the
Virgin Islands in 1919 under the title, "The Country We
Forgot," for McClure's Magazine; until, toward the
article's end, he wrote this gem:
The United States can forget many things about these islands but let it never forget that living in lonely sections of the island of St. Croix are families of pure Anglo-Saxon blood, the men, women and children of which are as much in need and as much entitled to police and military protection as those in the most populated sections of our country.65
The relationship between the local obligarchs and
the Navy was basically the same as their relationship to
the Danes. There were a number of reasons for this.
First, the Navy was an extremely conservative organization
and tended to support local reactionaries, or, as it
^^Daniel M. Henderson, "The Country We Forgot," McClure's Magazine, December 12, 1919 (proofs, no volume or number), n.p.
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called them, "good-thinking people." Second, since the
franchise was not altered, the Colonial Councils were
firmly in the hands of the St. Thomas merchants and St.
Croix planters, and so these groups had much superior
access to naval administrators. Thus, the Navy had
neither the inclination nor the necessity to support the
masses against the planter-merchant ruling class. Luther
Evans, whose unsympathetic and generally reactionary
account is often unreliable, gave an oddly perceptive if
somewhat crudely determinist picture of this situation:
Deeply rooted in the soil of a colony whose traditionally dominant occupations have been agriculture by slave or cheap Negro labor, and commerce in the harbor of St. Thomas, the social structure is strong, conservative, extremely undemocratic and inegalitarian.
The social pattern of St. Croix is characterized by the opposing forces of planters versus slaves, or recently planters versus more or less thriftless Negro farm laborers. Such a society is bound to present a governmental problem which only bloodthirsty oppressors would relish. Any government must recognize the fact that planter and laborer will be in eternal conflict, unless one side is temporarily quiescent for lack of the spirit to go through a fight. A government may choose to rule in a very limited way, align itself with the planters, shoot rebellious workmen, and have a happy time of it until even a docile people will cry out and strike back. Or a government may choose to govern in the broad sense of the term, and start on its way to ameliorate
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the condition of the poor by altering the system of production and distribution of income, until it is jerked up sharply by the discovery that it cannot govern. The constitution is fixed; and that constitution in effect provides for govern ment by and with the advice and consent of the planters...
In St. Thomas, the situation formerly resembled the present situation in St. Croix. But since St. Thomas has become important merely for its harbor, the picture has changed. Not planters, but merchants and real estate owners now exercise the right of setting limits to government activity.66
Another very important reason for oligarchy support of the
naval administration was direct dependence on government
purchases from businessmen in the chronically depressed
economy.
...nearly every leading business man of the Islands is either under obligation to the government or in a position to have its bounty bestowed upon him in one way or another. Nearly all the leading estate owners in St. Croix, as well as other leading people are indebted to the local government for loans ; and some in St. Thomas are in the same situation. In St. Thomas and in St. Croix many types of persons depend upon the govern ment for purchases of materials and supplies.67
^^Evans, From Naval Base to New Deal, p. 89.
67lbid.. p. 91.
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Although the planter-merchant-Navy alliance could
not be directly challenged in the local political arena,
there were three avenues of action open to the popular
leaders. They could directly petition Congress, they
could educate and propagandize through the local press,
and they could organize directly along class lines. All
three were done in the attempt to extend democracy,
promote social reform, and better the living conditions
of the masses. Thus, progressive movements centered
around three questions: The granting of American citizen
ship and civil rights - especially freedom of the press,
democratization of the local government, and promotion
of labor unions on St. Croix in an attempt to improve
the economic lot of the laborers there.
The Treaty of Cession did not grant American
citizenship to the natives of the Virgin Islands.
Although the matter was complicated and highly legalistic,
the main point was straight forward. Danish citizens had
the right to retain their Danish citizenship (by legal
declaration) or become American citizens by simply not
making such a declaration. Non-Danish citizens resident
in the Virgin Islands could become American citizens
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through the naturalization p r o c e s s . 68 The problem was
that Denmark had never granted citizenship to the
"inhabitants" - the legal term meaning the black natives -
of the Virgins. Consequently, about ninety percent of
the Virgin Islanders were not eligible for citizenship.
As some authors have pointed out, the Secretary of State
had informed Denmark by telegram in 1916 that the black
Islanders "will be regarded as nationals of the United
States and entitled to its full protection, and will
receive every possible political liberty."69 This tele
gram has been interpreted as evidence of American concern
for the rights of the natives and as far as it goes that
is probably correct. However, the actual Treaty of
Cession stated that, "The civil rights and political
status of inhabitants of the islands shall be determined
by Congress..."70j a clause which simply meant no
^^Ibid., p. 62.
^^Telegram from Secretary of State Lansing to the Danish Government, June 9, 1916. Quoted in Evans, From Naval Base to New Deal, p. 63.
^^Quoted in Hill, Rise to Recognition, p. 71.
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citizenship for blacks.
The fight for citizenship and civil democratic
local government had to be waged in the U.S. Congress, and
local leaders such as D. Hamilton Jackson of St. Croix
and Rothschild Francis of St. Thomas were active both in
organizing the movement in the Islands and in directly
petitioning Congress. Their requests were simply for
equal rights under the Constitution and generally for the
kinds of policies which we would call "liberal," although
Rothschild Francis considered himself a socialist.71
This "agitation", as it was always called, was rabidly
opposed by both the Navy and the merchant-planter
establishment. The Navy's attitude on citizenship was
simple. The Islanders didn't deserve it. As George
Washington Williams, the white Mississippian Government
Attorney and later judge of the District Court of the
Virgin Islands put it in a letter to Governor Hough in
7^Francis wrote an article (March 12, 1921) for "The New Day," a socialist weekly in which he titled him self a "Socialist Member, Provincial Legislature," and expressed the opinion that the "workers under the banner of socialism" would win the coming elections. (Francis, R., "The Class War in the Virgin Islands," New Day, March 12, 1921. General Files, 1917-1927, No. 95, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.)
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1923, "Anyone who is so much interested in becoming a
citizen of America, if that citizenship means anything
to him, would probably be willing to acquire it at the
only place where it ought to be acquired, that is, on
the Mainland of the United States."72 Presumably the
good barrister felt that aliens resident in such places
as Staten Island and Manhattan should have been denied
citizenship until they crossed the Hudson to the more
holy ground of Newark or Hoboken, New Jersey. As a judge,
Williams tried to muzzle Rothschild Francis' newspaper.
The Emancipator, illegally and eventually was instrumental
in driving Francis out of the Islands.
As far as opposition to the democratization of
the local government was concerned, both the Navy and
the local ruling class argued against the idea of demo
cratization and vilified the men trying to achieve it.
One naval officer stated, "An island or a small group of
^^George Washington Williams, "Letter from Government Attorney (Williams) to Governor Hough, March 22, 1923." General Files, No. 27, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
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islands acquired primarily for naval purposes does not
differ greatly from a war vessel or fleet at anchor. It
would be as improper to transfer the administration of
such an island or island group from Navy to another
department (to say nothing of the natives, WJK) as to
turn over war vessels to any other than the Navy Depart
ment. George Washington Williams, in the letter
quoted earlier, laid out a forthright argument against
democracy which most "good-thinking people" undoubtedly
shared, "if universal suffrage were admitted it would
simply mean that a few so-called labor leaders would
personally be given hundreds of votes as completely as
if they were authorized to individually cast so many
ballots. As the non-property class preponderates
greatly, people of substance will be utterly at their
mercy."74
The vilification mentioned above also proceded
apace. In 1922 the governor stated that leaders such
as Francis and Jackson,
73Quoted in Hill, Rise to Recognition, p. 72.
^^williams, "Governor Hough," letter.
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...at all times (are) against any form of insular government or administration in which they themselves do not personally have a hand, a voice and an emolument. The leaders and their sub-leaders teach that the insular government is inefficient and oppressive, that the rights of the people are trampled upon, that free speech and a free press are inhibited, that the courts are conducted with prejudice. They teach the children not to show reverence or respect for their elders and those in authority. Some of them scoff at religion and vilify the clergy; none of them are constructive workers but are reported to subsist in large from contributions drawn from the poor. They are un-American in thought and action and they actively foment race hatred. They carry no weight with the good thinking people, but on the contrary, they stand discredited before that part of the general public, and it would be a sorry day for the Virgin Islands if any governmental authority should ever come to rest upon the shoulders of these professional malcontents..."^^
The Secretary of the Navy himself took part in the cam
paign to discredit Francis in particular. He wrote to
President Coolidge that, "Francis is the editor of a
radical sheet called 'The Emancipator’ which quotes
from the vicious and radical (generally Negro, but
sometimes white) press of New York City. His is a bad
influence in his union and teaches anti-govemment,
^^Quoted in Evans, From Naval Base to New Deal, 221.
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socialistic, semi-bolshevik and race hatred s t u f f . "76
Evans states that Sec. Denby was "putting the President
wise to Francis." Indeed. That phrase helps put us
wise to Evans.
The third avenue of improvement, direct organizing
along class lines, was originally begun by D. Hamilton
Jackson and his St. Croix Labor Union which was organized
during the last years of the Danish regime. The Union
called a successful general strike of all cane workers in
1916. The issues were higher pay --the workers wanted a
raise from ten to twenty cents (a dayI) - rights to a
free English press, free assembly and union recognition. 77
After two months of strike and lockout the planters
capitulated on all points. The Labor Union remained
active throughout the Navy period and is still important
today, but the extremely depressed conditions, high
unemployment and emigration, and internal problems made
it progressively less effective as the 1920's and 1930's
wore on.
^^Ibid., p. 223.
^7Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, pp. 358-360.
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The coincidence of interests between the Navy
and the planter-merchant oligarchy just described should
not be interpreted as an active alliance or conspiracy.
In general there was little love lost between the Navy
and these groups. Since many of them were not white,
the color bar was applied. Beyond this was the general
disdain in which the Navy held all Virgin Islanders of
whatever station. For example, the Naval Governor would
not attend the meetings of the Colonial Councils although
he was invited. It was not an active cabal of stiff
necked officers and greedy capitalists that ruled the
Virgins for their own nefarious purposes, but rather
the conjunction of both objective and subjective
factors which allied the two groups in fact if not by
formal agreement.
The Navy regime saw little change in the economy.
As previously noted, the Navy had neither the expertise
nor the inclination for economic development. Its
programs were almost completely ameliorative. No change
was to be expected from the local economic elite. As
Lewis noted, and almost all other observers agreed, "The
local wealthy class was, on the whole, not only politically
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conservative but also entrepreneuria1ly unadventuresome."78
A great deal is often made of the supposedly large grants
made from the U.S. Treasury to cover local deficits during
this period, but in reality they were not large, especially
when measured against the needs of the community. These
sums were between $250,000 and $400,000 per year for a
population of around 25,000 or $10 to $16 annually per
capita.
The general decline of the main economic activities
of the two islands proceded as before. The progressive
modernization of shipping and the competition from newer
sugar areas continued, leading to further decline of St.
Thomas' harbor and depression on St. Croix from low sugar
prices. On the other hand, there were no technological
developments, like the advent of mass air travel in the
1950's to offset these influences. This dismal state of
affairs is best illustrated by the decline in population.
The 1917 population was 26,051 which by 1930 had dropped
to 22,012, a decline of 1 5 .5%.79
^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 64.
79Evans, From Navy Base to New Deal, p. 312.
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From the evidence presented above it is apparent
that the Virgin Islands continued their slow and steady
deterioration under the first fourteen years of American
rule. There was no significant movement in the economy,
social structure, or political structure.
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THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IN 1931: STATE OF THE SOCIETY
A. Recapitulation of the Stop-Action Method
As the reader will recall from Chapter I, this
chapter employs the stop-action method to establish a
benchmark for the period to 1961. Before actually
beginning the process of delineating the state of the
Virgins in 1931, we will briefly review the stop-action
method.
The method consists of asking a set of seventeen
questions, which, when taken together, should describe the
society accurately at one point in time and form the base
for application of historical materialism in its dynamic
aspect. The seventeen points are listed again here for
the reader's convenience.
1) Describe the economic order and produc tion of the society in question.
2) Locate the main classes in the economic structure. Locate also the various sub classes or strata in the economic structure. What are the relationships between class and race?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3) What are the objective economic interests of classes and strata and how does race impinge on these interests?
4) What is the extent of class and race consciousness?
5) How much and what types of class and race conflict are present?
6 ) What is the role of the lumpenproletariat?
7) What is the role of political parties and what are their relationships to classes?
8 ) Which party or parties are currently in power? What is its or their relation ships to the various classes? Who controls the instruments of state coercion?
9) What are the relationships among the major institutional orders of society, e.g., the economic, political, military, legal, religious, etc.?
10) What are the external relations of the society?
11) What is the political theory and practice of each party and what representation do subordinate classes have in the government?
12) What coalitions exist among parties and classes?
13) What is the role of the charismatic leader?
14) What are the central ideological themes of the society and whose interests do they serve?
15) What is the role of tradition?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16) What is the size and role of the bureaucracy? Do some of its functions benefit only certain classes?
17) What role does the legislature play?^
With these questions and the broader rationale of Chapter I
in mind, we now turn to the analysis of the Virgin Islands
in 1931.
B. The Situation in 1931
The economic situation in 1931 was summed up by
Governor Pearson, the first civil governor under the
Department of the Interior, in the opening sentence of his
first annual report. It read, "Conditions in the Islands
have been desparate."2 In St. Thomas the general decline
of shipping brought on by the Depression had seriously
cut into the revenues of the port, while the Navy was
rapidly phasing out almost all its facilities. Con
sequently, unemployment was rampant and wages and
expenditures were being cut across the board.
^I.M. Zeitlin, Marxism; A Re-Examination (New York, Van Nostrand, 1967), pp. 152-153.
2paul M. Pearson, Annual Report 1931. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C., p. 4.
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For example, the coaling of ships in the harbor
was still done by hand with women doing most of the labor.
They would have a basket filled for them on the dock,
walk up a gangplank to the ship's hold, dump the coal
and return for another load. The full basket weighed
about eighty pounds. In the best of times this back
breaking work was very irregular and ill-paid. A
federal government agent sent to investigate the banking
system and general economic conditions in 1925 wrote
that, "Women coaling vessels get 2 cents per basket of
80 pounds, and average 60 cents or occasionally $1 a day
for two days a week.By 1935 an investigator from the
Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor found, "They
were paid 1% cents a basket...One woman,... said that she
usually 'gets' from 20 to 40 baskets per ship."4 A little
later in the same report she noted that the rate had been
"recently" reduced to one centeper basket, implying that
this starvation rate would drive the remaining carriers
3Rufus S. Tucker, Economic Conditions of the Virgin Islands (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1926 (Senate Document No. 110, 69th Cong., 1st Sess.)), p. 9.
4sthe1 L. Best, The Economic Problems of the Women of the Virgin Islands of the United States (Wash ington: Government Printing Office, 1936 (Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 142)), p. 8 .
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out of the trade in order to let a newly installed crane
do the loading.5
Tax revenues had fallen off, and Governor Pearson
was forced to cut all government salaries from 10 to 20
percent - although he did not force government employees
making less than $50 per month to take a reduction - and
was also forced to cut some vital public s e r v i c e s . 6 Even
less agricultural production was taking place on St.
Thomas than usual, and landownership was very concentrated
with 60 percent of the land owned by 15 proprietors.7
That terrible poverty existed on St. Thomas was certainly
obvious, even before the Depression. As the authors of
^Ibid., p. 14.
6Paul M. Pearson, Memo to the Colonial Councils, no date. General Files, 1927-1932, No. 64. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. The services entirely eliminated were: Emergency aid to the poor - F 2,000; rent for garden plots culti vated by 54 people - F 2,100; maintainance of public works - F 48,000; summer school for teachers - F 7,000; and repairs to a burned government building - F 20,000. "F" stands for francs, the local currency, and one franc was worth $.19.
^Report of the Educational Survey of the Virgin Islands, Authorized by the Secretary of the Navy and conducted under the auspices of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes (Hampton, Va. : The Press of The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 1929), p. 64.
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the Hampton-Tuskegee report observed in 1929, "95% of
the burials in St. Thomas are pauper burials."8 Con
ditions in 1931 were undoubtedly worse.
On St. Croix the situation had deteriorated
even further. There, the Depression had brought very
low sugar and cattle prices, and one of the worst
droughts in the Island's history had struck. The largest
sugar central, Bethlehem, had gone bankrupt, giving rise
to distinct possibilities of mass starvation. As
Governor Pearson explained in a letter, "After much
activity and many efforts made to save the Bethlehem
Sugar Company, they have at last gone into liquidation...
This means that the unemployment in St. Croix will con
tinue for some long time, and it will be up to us to
provide food for the people. We are feeding now about
2,700 persons and this number may increase. We are
spreading the Red Cross Funds out as far as they will
go to pay for food orders of persons who work in the
various provision plots. We have now about 159 acres
under cultivation and were it not for that I do not know
8 Ibid., p. 65.
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what we would do."9 That same year the Census counted
11,413 inhabitants of St. Croix. The base of political
and economic power, land, was almost entirely in the small
ruling class’ hands. Fully 80 percent of it was held by
20 men, with 75 percent of that used for grazing, 15 per
cent for cane and the remaining 10 percent was bush.10
With so little land devoted to food production, hunger
could reasonably be expected êven in better times, much as
one finds today in one-crop economies. In the 1925 report
referred to above, R. Tucker observed - noting the honesty
of the people - that, "in the matter of stealing house
hold articles the natives have a very good record, and
the major forms of larceny are practically unknown."H
Then he went on to say that food was often stolen out of
fields and gardens, leading to the conclusion (which he
did not draw) that people were simply stealing as a last
9paul M. Pearson, Letter to Cmdr. H.M. Lammers, October 6 , 1930. General Files, 1927-1932, No. 22, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
IOf . Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags. Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), p. 374.
--Tucker, Economic Conditions of the Virgin Islands, p. 7.
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resort in order to eat. In the previous year a Department
of Labor investigative commission had reported that, "Un
employment, inadequate wages, and even hunger appear on
every h a n d . "12 And Herbert Brown noted in 1930 that,
"People are gradually starving to death."13
The decline in sugar production brought a similar
decline in sugar exports, further aggravating conditions by
shrinking government receipts based largely on an export
tax levied on sugar during Danish times and, like most other
Danish laws, still in force. Consequently, of the
$198,266.81 spent that year only 39 percent was raised
locally; in other words, the tax base of the community was
so tiny that only about $77,000 - $7 per person - in taxes
could be raisedI On St. Thomas, 55 percent of the
$222,005.21 expended was locally raised.14
By 1931 the class structure described in the back
ground chapter had not significantly changed. G.K. Lewis
12u.S. Department of Labor, Report of the Federal Commission Appointed by the Secretary of Labor to Investi gate Industrial and Economic Conditions in the Virgin Islands U.S.A. (Washington: Government Printing Office, February 29, 1924), p. 23. l^Herbert D. Brown, Report on Political, Social and Economic Conditions in the Virgin Islands (Washington: un published, 1930 (typewritten carbon copy). Rare Book Division, Library of Congress), p. 280. 14pearson, Annual Report 1931, p. 20.
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summed up the situation, "... (in 1931), the Virgins were
substantially a depressed colonial society. Deeply rooted
in an economy whose traditionally dominant occupations re
mained the same in 1931 as they had been in 1917, estate
agriculture based on cheap Negro labor in St. Croix and
harbor commerce based on hard-pressed clerks and steve
dores in St. Thomas, the social structure remained
rigidly conservative, grossly undemocratic, and profoundly
inegalitarian."15
Reference to Table 1 shows the employment by
industry for the Virgin Islands in 1917 and 1930.
More detailed breakdowns are not obtainable on com
parable bases from available statistical sources. As
is readily apparent, the two most common occupations were
farm labor and domestic service during the period. The
number of workers fell by almost 5,000, or 32 percent,
while the number of farm laborers decreased by more than
50 percent. Ordinarily, one might take such figures to
mean that agriculture was declining in importance and that
the power of the planters might well be on the wane. This
would be a superficial and thoroughly wrong interpre
tation. Table 2 shows the distribution of farms, by
^5g.K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilli- put (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 59
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INDUSTRIES OF PERSONS 10 YEARS AND OLDER, 1917 AND 1930
% of All % of All Workers Workers 1917 1930 1917 1930
Population 10 yrs. & older 21,191 17,269 All workers 14,590 9,981 100.0 100.0 Agriculture 6,084 2,944 41.7 29.5 Farmers (in 388 401 2.6 4.0 cluding tenants) Farm Laborers 5,120 2,440 35.1 24.4 Miscellaneous 576 103 3.9 1.0 Mfg . & Mech. 2,802 1,703 19.2 17.1 Industries Transport 842 656 5.8 6.6 Trade 872 784 6.0 7.9 Public Service 621 590 4.3 5.9 Professional 261 447 1.8 4.5 Service Domestic & 2,918 2,310 20.0 23.1 Personal Service Other 190 547 1.3 5.5
Sources: Census of the Virgin Islands of the United States: November 1, 1917, Table 41; Fifteenth Census of the United States : 1930. Outlying Territories and Possessions, Table 20.
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size, in various years for St. Croix. Comparing the data
for 1917 and 1930, we see that the number of large farms
remained stable or increased slightly, so it was only the
small farmers who were driven out by drought and low
prices. At the bottom of the table are figures for the
sugar acreage and harvest and numbers of cattle on farms
for the two years. These show the amount of land devoted
to cane and the total yield dropping greatly while the
number of cattle on farms stays relatively constant.
Since cane culture is much more labor intensive than
cattle raising, a rapid decrease in the number of farm
laborers is fully consistent with unchanging distribution
of land and social-political power.
In the case of St. Thomas, there is less direct
evidence on the lack of socio-economic change. The
indirect evidence, however, is strong. Simply, there is
not a single observer, either native or continental,
government or private, radical or conservative, naval
or civilian, white or black, who remarks anywhere in
writing on a significant change in the social or
economic structure. Detailed examination of the
admittedly (statistically) noncomparable but often
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NUMBER OF FARMS AND ACREAGE IN FARMS ST. CROIX, 1917 AND 1930
1917 1930
Number Total Number Total of Farms Acres of Farms Acres
Acres
9.9 or less 221 NA& 77 336 10. to 19.9 13 - 17 247 20. to 49.9 12 10 280 50. to 99.9 7 6 374 100. to 174.9 11 8 1,124 175. to 259.9 \ 15 3,419 260. to 499.9 > 45 29 10,240 500. to 999.9 21 20 13,694 X ;> 1,000 11 11 17,436
Total 341 193 47,150
% A = not available.
Sugar Cane Production 1917
No. of Farms NA 107 No. of Acres 8,684 5,820 Tons Produced 84,126 56,396
No. of Cattle on Farms 8,968 8,391
Census of the Virgin Islands of the United States: November 1, 1917, Table 15; Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930. Outlying Territories and Possessions, Table 28.
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detailed and informative Census data has also revealed
no such changes. The same, incidentally, may be said of
the rest of the Crucian economy.
The Americans, as already pointed out, had
introduced their style of racism with the first Marine
landing in 1917, American-style racism was destined to
play an increasingly important part in Virgin Island
life, but as of 1931 its effects were by no means
pervasive and it could not yet even begin to compare
with class as the basis of social status, cultural out
look and the whole range of invidious distinctions. The
Hampton-Tuskegee Report comments on this question.
It has been said, for instance, that the American introduced color prejudice into the Islands. This is by no means the case. Not only did color prejudice exist before the American came, but there were also many other types of prejudice which carried the caste system beyond anything known in the United States. The Islands are, and have been, a complex of caste and prejudices, many of which are more subtle than those of color. There are, for instance, 'high yellows' who, on account of distinguished ancestry, consider themselves the equal of, or superior to, many of the whites...Into this situation the United States is apparently introducing the comparatively
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simple inconsistencies of the American 'color line'.16
Given the background on Virgin Island social structure
previously presented, the word "caste" in the quota
tion is clearly ill-chosen. "Class" was certainly what
was meant, but it is hardly unusual for American writers
to avoid the word, often because of its vaguely radical
and "unamerican" aura. The general thrust of the
observation is clear, however. American-style racism
had been introduced into a society based on class
distinctions and had not gotten at all far in displacing
the traditional class standard.
The economic interests of the ruling classes of
the two islands were similar. Cheap labor, cheap govern
ment (low taxes), economic and political oligarchy, and
general maintainance of the status quo. The Hampton-Tuskegee
Report points up the first of these with its observation
that, "The pressure of the industrial interests of the
Islands is always to reduce the standards of labor to the
cheapest possible."17 Herbert Brown, in his report of
1930, illustrated the second one with the comment, "In
16Educational Survey, Hampton-Tuskegee, p. 65.
^7lbid.. p. 62.
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St. Croix the elected members of the Colonial Council
represent the sugar interests...these critics (the
planters, WJK) are apparently willing to reduce the
standards of education, the hospital facilities, public
works, and health and sanitation activities in order to
bring the cost of government within the present revenues.
To do this, however, would mean that the standards of
government would be reduced so low as to reflect dis
credit upon the United States in the administration of
its insular possessions."18 Brown also commented 300
pages later that.
To us the lesson seemed plain. The native black man appears to be trying to help him self to better ways of life. So far the alien white man (many of the planters had elected to keep Danish or other citizenship as was their right under the treaty of transfer without loss of civil rights, including the right to vote, WJK) has shown little interest in his efforts. Instead of helping him, instead of dividing land and profits with him in an effort to work out some cooperative plan in which they both might share, he sighs vainly for the return of eighteenth-century conditions which will never come again, which should indeed never come again and turning to the Government says : 'please let me bring in
^^Brown, Conditions in the Virgin Islands, p. 94.
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labor from other shores to do the hard work necessary to make these fields productive.19
The interests of the masses were, of course, directly
opposite.
Virgin Islanders have always been highly class and
race conscious in ways similar to other Caribbean peoples.
Although there have been exceptions such as 1733, 1848
and 1878, this class and race consciousness has been
strong but not militant. In other words, class conscious
ness, although strong, did not often lead to sustained
class action on the part of the masses. The rulers, as
we have seen, were never so lax. Although color has
always played a significant part in the status of the
individual, as is pointed up by the above quote from the
Hampton-Tuskegee Report, class clearly called the tune
throughout the Danish period and continued to do so in
1931. Particularly important was the Danish policy of
equality to the mulatto middle class, the class which
by this time had become - with the few remaining whites
as allies - dominant. As Joanna C. Colcord, field
representative of the American Red Cross, described to
a Senate committee in 1936,
^^Ibid.. p. 419.
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It is well to point out that the situation described is not racial, but economic. The dividing line in the islands between the propertied and the non-propertied is not at the same time a color line. Black, colored and white entrepreneurs and landlords make common cause together to protect the interests of their class against those of a laboring class which is also made up of black, colored and white, the latter represented by a colony of fishermen and basketmakers in St. Thomas of pure French descent,20
Actually, Ms. Colcord was overstating her case a bit.
There always was and continued to be that strong cor
relation between wealth and power and whiteness; so
that there were extremely few black people in the
elite and the whites of the lower class (the French)
were a peculiar and isolated phenomenon. But the
correlation itself was directly and purposefully
fostered by the economic system, an economic system
which then perpetuated the correlation between class
and whiteness.
In fact, the French of St. Thomas are a good
illustration of this author's contention that the
basic social variable in Virgin Island society was
class rather than race. If simple whiteness conferred
20'Quoted, in Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 85.
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status and power, the race thesis, then the French -
or "Cha Chas," a term of mild derision - would have had
a position of some status and influence. In truth they
had neither. E. Weinstein, who believes there is no
identifiable class structure in the Virgin Islands,
notes that, "Despite their color, the local French were
long despised for their p o v e r t y . "21 In other words, it
was their class position - they were poor and worked
with their hands - which easily overrode their white
skins in the eyes of the rest of the community.
The amounts and types of class and race conflict
in the Virgin Islands grew directly out of the economic
system. The class struggles of the past in the context
of master-slave and planter-free laborer class relations
on St. Croix and St. John of 1733, 1848 and 1878 have
already been reviewed. Class struggle also took the
form of industrial-type union organization on both St.
Croix and St. Thomas in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. St. Croix, with its traditionally
more violent social system based on slavery and later
^^Edwin A. Weinstein, Cultural Aspects of Delusion (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), p. 54.
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semi-slave plantation agriculture, evolved the more
militant and sustained unionism led by D. Hamilton
Jackson. This passage from a series of articles in the
New York Herald Tribune shows both the conflict and its
roots during the period since 1848 on St. Croix, "The
problem in St. Croix, in short, is no mere task of
trying to wake up a backward but comparatively comfortable
tropical island, but a thoroughly modem industrial
dilemma, with capitalists on one side, and idle workers
on the other, and strikes and semi-starvation in between."22
It has always been difficult to sustain working
class action for long in the Islands, however. The leader
ship has often been weak. Jackson, certainly no radical,
grew rapidly more conservative. Emigration had an
inevitably disruptive effect as ambitious islanders left
for New York in great numbers. Lewis gives an estimate
of 20,000 Virgin Islanders living in Harlem by 1930.23
^^Arthur Ruhl, "Extracts from articles in the New York Herald Tribune, May 12-16, 1931 by Arthur Ruhl." General Files, 1927-1932, No. 70. Records of the Govern ment of the Virgin Islands of the United States, Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 6 6 .
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State power, in reactionary hands throughout, could be and
was used against militants as in the Rothschild Francis
case. And finally, and possibly most important, the
Virgin Islands were simply so small, so poor, and so much
a victim of trends in the larger capitalist world such as
fluctuations in sugar prices and developments in ocean
commerce which could not be altered by internal working
class action. This last made for the feeling that the
possible rewards for sustained social-political action
were not very obvious nor very credible. The islands
were simply too poor to provide decent livings for the
workers through marginal reforms in the traditional
mode of production and there was no real possibility of
revolution for many reasons, not the least of which were
the institutions of the U.S. Navy and Marines. Then, too,
there were few ways the masses could express themselves.
The political avenue was closed by the restricted
franchise and social mobility was hampered by the rigid
class structure. In the face of all these negative
factors, the amount of working class action, especially
on St. Croix, was not small; but the fact is that it
could never be sustained over long periods.
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A lumpenproletariat did not play a significant
role at this time, but in the shape of an immigrant West
Indian population which has grown very quickly since the
1950's, this was to change.
The property franchise discouraged the formation
of political parties. Since the electorate was so small
and so homogeneous, the planters of St. Croix and the
merchants of St. Thomas - each with its separate Colonial
Council - had such unity of interest that parties were
basically irrelevant and politics was based more on
personality than issues. In the 1936 hearing on the
soon to be passed Organic Act, Governor Cramer summed up
the situation on both islands, "The result (of the
property franchise, WJK) is that the members of the
legislature definitely represent the property c l a s s . "24
Herbert Brown took special note of the stranglehold of
the Crucian planters on that Island's legislature, "in
St. Croix the elected members of the Colonial Council
represent the sugar interests...Not only the manager of
the Company (the West India Sugar Co., owners of the
24u.S. Congress, House, Committee on Insular Affairs, To Provide Civil Government for the Virgin Islands of the United States. Hearing, 74th Cong., 2nd Sess. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1936), p.10,
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Bethlehem sugar central and the largest plantations, WJK)
but also several of its employees and dependents have
seats on the Council. It is worthy of note that the
five people who comprise the one standing committee of
the Council, the so-called Municipal Committee, are all
in that category."25 Reading the names of the members of
each Council in 1931 and 1932 turns up many large property
holders on the respective islands, and an examination of
the Virgin Islanders employed in high positions in the
executive departments turns up the same family n a m e s . 2 6
The ruling class monopoly of political and administrative
positions not taken by continentals was nearly total.
Many of the relationships among the institutional
orders of society have already been mapped out. To
review, the economic and political elites were largely
identical with the exception of the high administrative
officials appointed by the Department of the Interior and
the Governor. The military (Navy) and police were either
all white continentals in the case of the Navy or headed
by a continental in the case of the police. The main uses
^^Brown, Conditions in the Virgin Islands, pp. 94 and 109.
^^Pearson, Annual Report 1931, pp, 40 and 48.
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of the police were in the informal settling of petty domes
tic quarrels and misdemeanors and keeping order during
strikes.
Despite the poverty and exploitation described
earlier, the Islands were almost entirely free of major
personal or property crime. For example, in 1929 there
were 558 arrests on St. Thomas and 552 on St. Croix. The
tremendous majority of those arrests were for minor offenses
such as disorderly conduct. In that year there were no
murders, rapes, kidnappings, armed robberies or auto thefts
reported. There were only two arrests for aggravated as
sault, three for arson, and about 10 for grand l a r c e n y . 27
Of the 389 convictions on St. Thomas, only 27 prison sen
tences were handed down, 17 of which were for less than one
y e a r . 28 In fiscal 1931 there were 503 arrests on St.
Thomas and 367 on St. Croix. The picture is practically
the same except in that year there were no cases of arson.
Only 22 people were sent to prison on St. Thomas, 17 for
less than one year.29 The 1940 police department report
opened with a terse, "There were no major crimes."
27Brown, Conditions in the Virgin Islands, pp. 547-548.
28lbid.. p. 547.
29pearson, Annual Report 1931, p. 3 3 ,
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As has been pointed out previously, religion was
orthodox and pietistic in the Virgin Islands. Thus, it
tended to passively support the existing social order.
According to the Hampton-Tuskegee Report, "(The churches)
have doubtless rendered highly satisfactory (social)
services to the comparatively few white people and to a
limited number of the more favored colored people. But
for the native blacks, the great mass of the population,
these services seem to have meant but little,.,Too much,
it would seem, has been made of conducting religious
services for the natives and too little of developing
religious life within them."30 This formal piety of the
Islanders has been noted often and Governor Pearson
pointed out with pride in his 1934 Annual Report that
total church membership and total population were nearly
identical.31
The external relations of the Islands have been
partially laid out, but 1931 brought several changes. In
that year jurisdiction was transferred from the Navy to
the Department of the Interior, making the governor and
his continental staff civilians. The Navy rapidly phased
30Educational Survey, Hampton-Tuskegee, p. 43.
^^Pearson, Annual Report 1934, p. 18.
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out nearly all its operations. The civilian governor
had powers just as broad as the Danish and Naval governors,
however, since there was no change in the basic constitu
tion of the Islands. That change came in 1936 with the
passage of the Organic Act. In fact, the transfer of
jurisdiction had taken place by a simple executive order
from President Hoover, who acted completely without the
advice and consent of the Islanders. The President,
through Interior, continued to appoint the governor who,
in turn, appointed the important administrative personnel.
The governor also attempted to pressure funds from the
U.S. Congress to supplement the extremely meager
revenues generated by the local tax structure, and so
was supposed to act as a sort of lobbyist for the Virgins
in Congress - a difficult and thankless job, especially
from 1,500 miles away and before the age of commercial
air travel.
As noted, there were no political parties of any
substance. The restricted franchise guaranteed that only
safe and sane men of property were elected, so except
for an occasional liberal appointed by the governor, the
lower classes had no representation.
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The opening chapter of this case study pointed up
at some length the enduring alliance of the political-
administrative authorities - both Danish and American -
and the native elite - both white and brown. This alliance
was not always formal and open, especially in the case of
the Navy with its racism and general aloofness. However,
the limits set by native ruling class policy and the
generally reactionary attitudes of the Navy meshed
naturally in defense of the socio-economic status quo.
These comments should not be taken to imply that rela
tions between the Navy and the Colonial Councils were
always smooth or even civil. For example, in 1925
Governor Phillip Williams dissolved the St. Croix
Colonial Council because they would not approve two of
his appointments to the b o d y . 32 There was also a long
standing controversy over the abolition of various
Colonial Council commissions, suspended temporarily in
1918 and permanently in 1923, which had vested administra
tive oversight of schools, poor relief, sanitation.
32philip Williams, Annual Report, 1925. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C., p. 1 1 .
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hospitals, roads, fire, prisons, quarantine, taxes and
cernetaries.33 After these powers were vested in the
governor, each governor steadfastly refused to give them
up despite the almost constant petitions and agitation
of the Councils. These and other issues animated the
1920's, but even if the Councils had won these battles,
which they almost invariably lost, it would have meant
little to the masses. Considering the social, political
and ideological makeup of the Councils any additional
powers they could have wrested from the Washington-
appointed government would have undoubtedly been used
for the interests of the elite and against the interests
of the majority of the people.
The charismatic leader had not played a major role
in the Virgin Islands up to 1931. There were leaders who
arose for short periods during social upheavals, Moses
Gottlieb, "Queen" Mary, "Queer!' Coziah, but in general the
marked individualism of the people and the fact that
political careers were closed to potential leaders of
the masses prevented the rise and continuance of
33Luther Harris Evans, The Virgin Islands: From Naval Base to New Deal (Ann Arbor: J.M. Edwards, 1945), p. 106.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. charismatic leaders. D. Hamilton Jackson, the leader of
the St. Croix Labor Union, may be the exception here, but
being the only one suggests he was the exception that
proves the rule.
Of the various ideological themes found in the
Islands, probably the most pervasive was paternalism.
Slavery, lack of representative government, outsiders
(Danes and Navy officers) in most important administra
tive positions all combined to produce paternalism in
the rulers and docility and lack of initiative in the
people. The commercial nature of the Islands, particular
ly St. Thomas, also produced the sharp-dealing provincial
business type and the lack of opportunities combined
with poor health and nutrition helped produce the theme
of the lazy native. Needless to say those themes and
attitudes helped rationalize and maintain the ruling
group in power.
The role of tradition in 1931 was complex. The
Virgins had received strong doses of various European
(Danish, English, French) and North American cultures.
The impact of these white cultures was largely negative
in that they destroyed African traditions but were too
ephemeral to completely take their places. As Jarvis
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explained, "The educational background of the people has
always stressed the appearance rather than the reality of
culture."34 As this author has tried to indicate, those
influences led to a basically culture-poor environment.
The traditions of blind conservatism and sharp dealing
were common along with the paternalism, distaste for
manual labor, and individualism mentioned previously.
But these are all quite general and not at all the kind
of powerful all-encompassing traditions found in colonies
with a large and advanced native population (Peru, India)
or Europe in the Middle Ages. This is to be expected.
After all, the Virgins were small, capitalist colonies
founded on commercial and agricultural exploitation
through slave and other oppressed non-indigenous labor.
Such a society is highly unlikely to produce strong,
distinct and positive traditions.
The state bureaucracy in 1931 was divided in two.
The governor and top administrative personnel were con
tinentals. Subordinate personnel were generally native
with the better positions usually going to scions of "good
families." All natives were discriminated against in
34j .Ao Jarvis, The Virgin Islands and Their People (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1944), p. 161.
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terms of pay since there were two salary schedules. Whites
were paid on the "federal schedule" while natives were
paid on the - much lower - "local schedule." This practice
continued until the mid-1950's. The bureaucracy was not
large, although it soon began to grow under Pearson and
exploded in size during the I960's.
The-bureaucracy did little that benefitted the
masses. There were no welfare programs, with the excep
tion of public medical care which took about thirty per
cent of total public expenditures. Education was
primitive although it had been expanded under the Navy.
The Hampton-Tuskegee Report noted that, "The present
course of study of the Virgin Islands was taken in the
main from two American States...The essential weakness
of the course of study for the Virgin Islands is that it
has not grown out of a specific inquiry into the needs of
the Virgin I s l a n d s . "35 Writing a few years later, another
educational observer was more pointed; "The schools were
of the traditional, formal, and academic type which
apparently did not function practically in raising
standards of living or in improving the social and
33Educational Survey, Hampton-Tuskegee, pp. 37-38.
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economic life of the p e o p l e . "36 The bureaucracy's con
cerns as indicated by government expenditure were:
Public order (about 10% of expenditures), education
(15-20%), and public works (15-20%).37 Social insurance,
decent public assistance, vocational training, etc., were
all unknown.
In general, the Colonial Councils had become
weaker under the American regime. As Lewis points out,
"The Councils, in effect, were helpless in the face of a
rapidly expanding executive machine, and their situation
was made all the worse by their debarment for intervention
in either the local or the federal appointive p o w e r s . " 3 8
Consequently, appointments were often made which were
totally inappropriate. A particularly scandalous appoint
ment was that of Miss Lucy Gillette as commissioner of
public welfare in 1932, despite the facts that she was
a known racist and that the Councils had voiced strong
objections to her appointment. Reference has already been
made to the abolishing of the administrative commissions.
36Ratherine M. Cook, Public Education in the Virgin Islands (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1934), p. 15.
^^Evans, From Naval Base to New Deal, pp. 197-198.
^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput. p. 74.
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and it should be kept in mind that these commissions had
been one of the Councils' most powerful tools under the
Danish system. This, combined with extremely limited
powers to investigate departments, the governor's power
of item veto over money bills, and extensive gubernatorial
power to introduce and amend ordinances, considerably
weakened the Councils. Thus, the executive power
dominated the scene, increasing both legal and de facto
power by controlling a growing bureaucracy and progressive
ly limiting the Councils' prerogatives.
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DEPRESSION - WAR - STAGNATION
The title of this chapter suggests a general lack
of movement in the 1931-1954 period. What changes there
were often came from outside the Islands in the form of
New Deal policies and wartime exigencies. Although these
changes are significant and will be explained at some
length, there was little alteration in the mode of produc
tion and consequently little basic social change. Both
the changes and the reasons for them, including the
reasons why they were not greater or more far-reaching,
will become clear in what follows.
A. The Economy and Class Structure
During the Depression
The economics of 1931-1954 is a story of govern
ment policy trying to reverse the general downward drift
of the economy which had been proceeding for fifty years.
The policy was essentially the sort of New Deal policy
which Roosevelt inaugurated in 1933-1934, and like its
160
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much larger cousin, it failed. The reason for failure was
similar; faced with an untenable situation, policy makers
were both unwilling and unable to prescribe the kind of
wholesale changes which were called for and instead used
a framework which recommended policies which were either
inadequate or irrelevant. In all fairness, however,
given the long downward trend already reviewed, and given
the lack of countervailing pressures against the trend
when combined with the smallness and extreme poverty of
the Virgins, the conditions of world-wide depression and
the policy limitations imposed by American capitalist
traditions and institutions, the problems of poverty and
underdevelopment in this period were not solvable.
The New Deal came to the Virgins under the
auspices of Herbert Hoover in 1931. This ironic fact
stemmed from a report prepared by Herbert D. Brown of the
quaintly named and now defunct Bureau of Efficiency which
was adopted by Hoover. After an extended recounting of
the deplorable state of the Islands in 1929-1930, the
report recommended an expanded government program "suf
ficient to do energetically (and) at once the things
that are necessary to bring about improved conditions and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. thus make it possible, by helping the Virgin Islanders
to help themselves, to reduce gradually the federal aid
with the ultimate result of making the islands entirely
self-supporting.”! The report specifically recommended
tourist and port development for St. Thomas and a home
steading program on St. Croix. The homesteading project
had three goals : to break down the super-concentrated
ownership pattern; to get idle land into production; and
to give native farm laborers a chance to become
proprietors. Table 2 shows just how concentrated land
ownership was in 1930. Of the 193 farms on St. Croix
in that year covering 47,150 acres, the 31 largest
accounted for 66 percent of the total land in farms.
Broadening the large farm category to include those farms
from 260 to 499 acres, 60 farms in all, 87.7 percent of
all land in farms was held in large farms. Rehabilitation
(the word usually given to these programs by government
officials) soon became the responsibility of the Virgin
Islands Company, a quasi-public corporation which began
operations in 1934. The homesteading program, at first
^G.K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands. A Caribbean Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 69.
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under a Homesteading Commission in 1932 and administered
by the Virgin Islands Company (VICO) from 1934, was a land
nationalization through purchase scheme. During the 1930's
about 5,767 acres of St. Croix estates were purchased and
the cultivable portions of them subdivided and distributed.2
The farms thus created were usually between five and ten
acres and were to be amortized over nineteen years at 4
percent. Such payments were considerably below the rental
rates for similar parcels of land on the private market.
Marketing services and farm equipment were supplied by the
Homesteading Commission, later VICO, to ensure that the
farmers paid their installments and the equipment was shared
equitably. VICO's other main activities were sugar milling
(the St. Croix Central Factory and Bethlehem were both
purchased and reopened) and rum distilling under the label
"Government House Rum." VICO rapidly became the largest
^Luther Harris Evans, The Virgin Islands; From Naval Base to New Deal (Ann Arbor: J.M. Edwards, 1945), pp. 304-306. In 1932 Whim (1,415 acres),iLa Grand Princesse (712 acres), and Northside (1,440 acres) were purchased. In 1934 2,200 acres and the mill at Bethlehem were purchased.
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economic entity on St. Croix and by 1937 had 1,000
employees.^
The VICO program on St. Croix was hardly radical.
In essence the goal was to revitalize the traditional
economy, sugar, and through a renewed sugar base to
generate enough income and employment to start the island
back from permanent depression. Land acquisition was on
favorable terms and completely voluntary for the planters,
and there was no radical political or social program
accompanying the rehabilitation effort. It was a
minimum program with almost no risks for the ruling class.
Nevertheless, the St. Croix Colonial Council vehemently
opposed a local charter for VICO, particularly after it
became known that D. Hamilton Jackson of St. Croix and
Lionel Roberts of St. Thomas - both moderate progressives •
were to sit on the board of directors with Secretary of
the Interior Harold Ickes, Assistant Secretary Oscar
Chapman and Governor Pearson. The local oligarchy was
so united in opposition that a charter had to be obtained
^Lawrence Cramer, Annual Report - 1937. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. , p. 17.
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from the St. Thomas Colonial Council for all the islands
since the VICO proposal for St. Thomas was even more
innocuous - the construction of a hotel, office building
and harbor improvements.4 This incident is noteworthy
for two reasons. It demonstrates the extraordinarily
reactionary attitudes of the Crucian planters, but it
also shows that the power of the governor, especially when
backed by the Interior Department, could easily override
local wishes whether just or unjust.
Benefits which might have accrued to St. Croix
from Vico's activities were limited by legal rulings and
practices. Being a quasi-govemmenta1 body, VICO was not
subject to local taxation. For the same reason, the
comptroller general ruled that any profits made on the
rum operation had to be remitted to the U.S. Treasury,
not the local government. But there was a much more
fundamental problem. With the limited amounts of land
and capital available, the homesteading program was not
creating a sturdy yeomanry but small peasants, a class
^F. Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), pp. 378- 379.
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doomed to extinction or the very lowest levels of living
in any advanced society. And since the goal was to modern
ize the Virgin Islands, this form of economy could only be
viable in the short run at best. Not only were there
large technical barriers to a successful homesteading
policy, but "...the whole program was based on a funda
mental misconception about the life values of the
Crucian laborer, who had little more than a sentimental
interest in landowning.Rural proletarians seldom
make good farmers, and with the equation of field work with
slavery in St. Croix, the mental transition from farm
laborer to yeoman was especially difficult.
Table 3 shows how short lived and unsuccessful
the experiment was. As can be seen from the Table, the
homesteading program of the 1930's greatly augmented the
number of small farms (up to 20 acres) and the share of
total land held in such units climbed from 1.2 percent to
9.1 percent by 1940. The basic unviability of this
peasant agriculture is demonstrated by the high failure
rate - small farms made up only 6.0 percent of the land
^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 82.
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s g
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area by 1950 and 4.3 percent by 1960. While there were
512 such farms in 1940, there were only 372 in 1950 and
214 in 1960 - in 20 years more than half had failed.
There was less activity on St. Thomas. The hotel
project (Bluebeard's Castle) was completed by 1937, but a
twenty-room hotel built before the age of Caribbean mass
tourism could hardly be expected to generate much income.
Harbor development never got off the ground. Rug-weaving
and basket-making were encouraged by a cooperative set
up in these areas, but they were primitive operations
without essential marketing outlets on the mainland and
were based precisely on the very low wage labor they were
meant to help abolish.^
Economically, then, the New Deal policies were
similar to the Navy's in content if not in style.
Substantive change in the mode of production was not
contemplated in either case. Relief and stop-gap measures
rather than an integrated socio-economic plan which
squarely faced the need for through-going socio-economic
change was the modus operandi of both the New Deal and
Navy regimes. VICO's activities on St. Croix directly
ÔEvans, From Naval Base to New Deal, p. 307.
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strengthened the sugar-planter economy by socializing
some of the most unprofitable operations, especially
sugar milling, and provided planters with a way to
liquidate otherwise unprofitable and unsaleable properties.
At the same time, the class of small farmers created by
the homesteading program was too small and weak to pose
a serious threat to the social and political hegemony of
the planter class. On St. Thomas there was hardly any
pretense of serious socio-economic change. Probably the
most important effect of the "rehabilitation program"
from the point of view of the average Virgin Islander
was the more ready availability of government jobs in
both VICO and the executive departments occasioned by
the New Deal policies.
Given the small amount of economic change and the
conservative cast of the change which did occur, one
would not expect major social change. And, there was
relatively little during the Depression. There are other
possible sources of change, however, and in the Virgin
Islands case these have been prominent although secondary.
The most important source outside the mode of production
in the Islands themselves has been the policies of the
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governor and the Department of the Interior. Before
going on to outline the effects of those policies, we
must take account of the change or lack of it engendered
by the economic developments sketched above. Commenting
on the social results of the rehabilitation program,
G.K. Lewis points out.
The long-term result of the New Deal policy, then, was to consolidate the economic power of the elite group of wealthy merchants and landowners. With most of the government contracts in their pockets they reaped a large proportion of the profits from the rehabilitation program, in effect controlled the strategic position of the Virgin Islands Company...in the St. Croix land program, and managed, through their representation in the archaic Councils, to shift the burden of taxation from their shoulders to those of the masses, with no very strenuous objections from the Government House bureaucracy. They thus became the staunch allies of the governor. The function of the Councils became, under such pressure, the protection of their privileges, and the concept of democracy that most Council members accordingly held was that of a narrow-minded legislative sovereignty unrelated to con siderations of representation. Their legisla tive record, thus, was dismally uninspired.^
Governor Pearson himself recognized the rigid class
structure of the Islands but saw nothing wrong in class
domination. "The merchants and representatives of the
^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, pp. 86-87.
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West India Company and their friends may possibly
dominate the Colonial Council of St. Thomas and St. John
(and, of course, the planter domination on St. Croix,
WJK), but these people are more fitted to assume
responsibilities; they were the ruling class when we got
here and in every country of the world, regardless of
the system of government, there will always be a ruling
class. These comments, combined with the lack of any
changes in the occupational structure or structure of
property holding, serve to show that the New Deal
policies neither generated significant change in the mode
of production generally or the class structure in
particular.
Occupational and industry data give a dlue- to
class structure and the following tables give information
on the distribution of occupations and the numbers of
workers in each major industrial category. Unfortunately,
there is no occupation data for 1930 and the industry
data for that year is not fully comparable to later years
and would be misleading if taken literally. Consequently,
attention should be focused on the 1940 and 1950 data
Ibid.. p. 89.
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(1930 industry data is included for what it is worth).
The overall picture is one of stability. In 1940 (Table
4) agriculture, private household employment and trade
were the industries with the greatest numbers of workers
and in 1950 these three areas still held the greatest num
bers . The occupational classification (Table 5) shows
similar stability with private household, agriculture
and service occupations making up the three most common
occupations in both years (with the exception of private
household occupations in 1950). The most precipitous drop
occurred in private household employment. This is an
interesting fact, but can hardly be termed a shift in
basic economic structures since domestic service is not
nearly as significant an economic activity as industry
or agriculture.
The two most important pieces of data on class
structure are the first income distribution recorded by
the Census in 1949 and the distribution of landholding on
St. Croix. The data on income can be found in Table 6 .
This table reveals a ridiculously skewed distribution.
The richest 5 percent of persons earning income received
a full 34.4 percent of the total income during that year,
while the poorest earners (36.4 percent) received a paltry
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TABLE 4
INDUSTRY OF EMPLOYED PERSONS, 1930, 1940 AND 1950
1930 1940 1950
% of % of % of Number Total^ Number Total Number Total
Total 9,981 100.0 7,133 100.0 8,269 100.0
Agriculture 2,944 29.5 1,634 22.9 1,661 20.1
Construction 516 5.2 461 6.5 939 11.-4
Manufacturing 1,179 11.8 518 7.3 464 5.6
Transportation 542 5.4 288 4.0 427 5.2
Retail Trade 749b 7.5 929 13.0 1,040 12.6
Private House hold Service 2,310c 23.1 1,478 20.7 976 11.8
Public Administration 609 6.1 533 7.5 803 9.7
All Other 1,132 11.4 1,292 18.1 1,959 23.7
^Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
^All trade.
^All personal services.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 6 8 ; Sixteenth Census of the United States : 1940, Table 11; Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Table 20.
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TABLE 5
OCCUPATION OF EMPLOYED PERSONS, 1940 AND 1950
1940 1950
% of 7o of Number Total^ Number Total
Total 7,133 100.0 8,269 100.0
Professional, Technical and Kindred 438 6.1 601 7.3
Managers and Administrators 489 6.9 612 7.4
Clerical and Sales 850 11.9 1,000 12.1
Craftsmen, etc. 596 8.4 1,119 13.5
Laborers 826 11.6 961 11.6
Service Workers 1,197 16.8 1,293 15.6
Farmers and Farm Laborers 1,317 18.5 1,361 16.6
Private Household 1,402 19.7 860 10.4
Other 18 0.3 462 5.6
^Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 67; Sixteenth Census of the United States : 1940, Table 11.
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5.9 percent I To put this in perspective the richest 10
percent of the mainland American population received 28.7
percent of the total personal income earned in the U.S. in
1950, while the richest 10 percent of Virgin Island income
earners received approximately 50 percent of all the income
reported in the Islands.9
Table 3 shows the concentration of farm owner
ship on St. Croix. After a drop of 9.4 percent in the
amount of land held in large farms between 1930 and 1940,
reflecting the institution of the homesteading program,
there was only a 1.7 percent decrease in the amount of
land held in large farms between 1940 and 1950.
Interestingly enough, between 1940 and 1950 the actual
numbers of acres held in large farms actually increased
by 1,078. This is evidence of strong stability in the
numbers and extent of large farms over the twenty-year
period.
Probably the most visible social policy brought
in by Governor Pearson and his aides was a relative
racial liberalism. Social functions at Government House
^Gabriel Kolko, Wealth and Power in America, p. 14.
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TABLE 6
INCOME OF PERSONS IN 1949
Cumulative Cumulative Percentage Percentage Number of of Total of Total Persons Persons Income
Total Reporting 9,821 100.0 100.0
Loss to $99 1,342 86.3 99.2
$100-299 2,231 63.6 94.1
$300-499 1,670 46.6 86.5
$500-699 1,176 34.6 78.5
$700-999 1,061 23.8 68.6
$1,000-1,499 971 13.9 55.0
$1,500-1,999 458 9.2 45.9
$2,000-2,999 418 5.0 34.4
$3,000-3,999 194 3.0 26.9
$4,000-4,999 98 2.0 21.9
$5,000-9,999 148 0.5 9.3
$10,000 & Over 54
Median $ 460
Source: U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 70.
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were more desegregated and efforts were made to recruit
black Virgin Islanders into the expanding bureaucracy.
Unfortunately, both policies were more changes in style
than substance. The guests at social functions were the
light-skinned elite, and more intimate social contact with
this group drew the continental administrators closer to
them and even further from the interests of the masses.
This new and relatively open door policy for the local
ruling class allowed another deep-seated characteristic
of the society to fully reassert itself - the tradi
tionally close relationship between the business community
and the government. As an earlier quote made clear, this
close relationship was present under the Navy regime and
with the lessening of official segregation these ties
became stronger. The withdrawal of the Navy and the
start of the rehabilitation program vacated some jobs and
created others. And although the Pearson administration
portrayed itself as pro-native, the higher echelons of
the bureaucracy were nearly solidly white and continental.
There were many cases of inexperienced continentals
replacing competent natives, such as the appointment of
Boyd Brown and Leslie Hunt to important offices in VICO,
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and as a reporter for the Afro-American pointed out, when
natives were appointed they "were given half the salary
and twice as much work as their white predecessors."10
There was still plenty of racism in the new
civilian officeholders. It is really difficult to gauge
precisely how much, but it was certainly present. The
Lucy Gillette appointment was one obvious case. Another
prominent officeholder, Hamilton Cochran, was invited by
Governor Pearson to take the posts of Commissioner of
Public Welfare (after Lucy Gillette) and Commissioner of
Handcraft, the latter in 1932. After leaving the
Islands, Cochran wrote a very uninformative book on his
experiences which was published in 1937. That is, the
book was factually uninformative. After references to
the natives in such language as "black scamps," "darkies"
and "dusky," Cochran observed, "This slow rise to power
(meaning the dwindling number of native whites on the
Islands, WJK) has naturally enhanced the negro's pride
and ego to the point where he actually believes that he
should be permitted to rule his own islands according to
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his own ideas."!! One must certain!y admire such forth
rightness. Another examp!e is rather !ong but deserves
to be quoted in fu!!. Note the reasonabie tone and
moderate subject of what Cochran calls a "diatribe."
An example of the milder variety of negro news paper insolence is quoted from the St. Thomas Daily News : 'Those who have experienced the lure of distant places and seen men of other conditions know that much of the life in this city is a drab farce acted out by a chorus of color conscious uninformed nonentities directed by middle-class Americans who always attempt to regulate the morals of other people. They are aware that some day the people will leam what sorry parts they play and throw off the sock of unconscious buffoonery to assert their rights and privileges in the proper manner.
'Abstract generalizing aside it is really pitiful from a sociological point of view to note that in a town 95 percent colored, not money or culture, nor power can open certain doors at the most necessary times I Although the people who really supply capital, energy and horse sense to this community are important on tax day, a Cha-Cha (a term of derision applied to white French fishermen of St. Thomas, WJK) is much more welcome at a Government House Ball.
'No self respecting negro wants an invitation to a private tea party kept by any white person unless their intimacy be such as to make it "comme il faut." But the Governor of the Virgin Islands, as a civilian
^Hamilton Cochran, These are the Virgin Islands (New York: Prentice Hall, 1937), p. 56.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. governor, has neither the right nor the shadow of an excuse to keep burghers away from any public function in which a proper representa tion of the business, professional and diplomatic as well as legislative groups would be made. How can a white filing clerk outrank the representative of Liberia? How and why is a white unknown the superior of the head of some Federal department of the government and as such is eligible where the other is barred on account of his color?
'Let them entertain their uncles and their cousins, their nephews and aunts as they choose, but when the name and honor of the community are at stake there must be some black faces at official functions. There is no excuse except rudeness and indifference to explain why strangers should be given the impression that black people have nothing, do nothing, and are nobodies. Why should they send a team of black boys to play games with visitors on the field and track, yet deny black gentlemen their rightful recognition? What is there for our children to expect as rewards for culture and wealth and accomplish ment? There is no pardon for prejudice - we will not compromise; we will not be silent. We have a divine discontent with conditions as they are.'
That diatribe was inspired by the failure of the Governor to invite negroes to attend a reception for the officers of a visiting German cruiser.
How can one account for this unfortunate attitude, which contrasts so sharply with the comfortable and harmonious relations that exist between our southern negroes and their white neighbors?!2
^^Ibid.. pp. 54-56.
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The other area of policy which affected some
social change was politics. The key event was the
passage of the Organic Act of 1936. This Act will be
discussed more fully later; here it is sufficient to note
that the Act granted universal suffrage, thereby setting
the stage for the participation of the masses in politics.
In the context of social change this development is
important because it opened up a new avenue of social
mobility and a new career for a group who were previously
barred from political jobs - both as professional
politicians and as supporters of parties which had
influence in determining appointments to administrative
positions. This latter factor has been quite important
and is another aspect of the close ties between business
and government mentioned earlier. Once universal suffrage
was granted a complex and strong spoils system rapidly
grew up for the non-propertied complementing the one
which had always existed for the elites. The doctrine
of conflict of interest, inadequate as it has been on
the mainland, never received even a small part of the
attention it has generated on the U.S. mainland. Thus,
beginning in the late 1930's a rather rough-and-tumble
system of pork-barrelling and position-brokering evolved
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which has been the cause of considerable political conflict
over the years. Although this new form of social mobility
was important for the individuals talented and lucky
enough to take advantage of it, considering the small
number of positions available and the insecurity of
tenure this avenue was only marginally important at this
time.
In sum, although there had been some change in
government policy and some change in the economy during
the 1930's, it was more disaster relief than real socio
economic progress. The productive system, sugar on St.
Croix and petty commerce on St. Thomas, was not
significantly altered despite aid furnished by VICO and
other New Deal programs such as the CCC, PWA and AAA.
Consequently, the great social changes which were a
prerequisite for a viable Virgin Islands economy and
society did not occur. Those changes caused by political
developments were important in themselves but marginal
from the point of view of Virgin Island society taken as
a whole. On the eve of the Second World War the forces
and relations of production were substantially the same
as they had been in 1880. A major participant in the
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politics of the late 1930's points out that conditions
at the end of the 1930's were much the same as before,
...plural society resulting from an export agriculture plantation economy; an upper class differentiated from the rest by race and color and deficient in local attachment and loyalty; the absence of inter-class bridges ; a society with few interests beyond the acquisition of money; a small middle class chronically concerned with social status; a society poor in associational life, with the few significant associations that existed organized autocratically; federally dominated central government; almost all authority and high status enjoyed by a tiny minority of white and colored officials, planters, merchants and professionals with the rest of the population seemingly doomed to permanent poverty and social rejection.
As a result of these conditions and others derived from them, certain problems faced the Virgin Islanders, among them a standard of living for the majority little above sub sistance level; an inflexible economy with consequent unemployment and underemployment; and a society divided by race class antagonism.
To say that the New Deal programs did not cause
radical social change is to criticize them for something
they did not attempt ; however, it was never appreciated
that the goals of these programs - economic prosperity
and self-sufficiency - were not achievable under the
^^V.A. Hill, Sr.. Rise to Recognition (Private Printing, 1971), pp. 92-93.
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traditional mode of production. The failure of New Deal
policy in the Virgin Islands was thus analogous to its
failure in the United States proper - the policies were
irrelevant or inadequate and it was only massive stimulus
from outside the economic system which "cured" the
Depression. For the United States it was war and Cold
War; for the Virgin Islands it was the rise of mass
tourism.
B. The Organic Act and Political Change
The central political event of the Depression
years was the passage of the Organic Act of 1936. Up
until 1938, the year of the first general election under
the new constitution, politics ran along the same lines
as under the Navy. As noted earlier, this meant a strong
and unresponsive Interior-appointed executive usually in
de facto alliance with the local ruling class. To
recapitulate, the governor, appointed by and serving at
the pleasure of the Secretary of the Interior, was bound
by Interior's policy and was necessarily reluctant to
suggest potentially unpopular revisions in that policy.
He was invested with very great powers viz-a-viz the
Colonial Councils and would often use them in an arbitrary
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fashion. The Councils were the direct mouthpieces of the
ruling class because of the property franchise, and the
close social and economic ties between them and the govern
ment effectively closed off both formal and informal
channels of communication between the lower class and the
white executive bureaucracy. There also tended to be a
basic ideological symmetry between the governor and the
Councils and despite frequent differences of opinion
over details and programs, neither the alien government
nor the native elites ever questioned the basic socio
economic structure. All these factors made for community
of interest between the governor and his staff and the
Virgin Island ruling class.
The Organic Act permanently, although not rapidly
in the case of St. Croix, altered the political land
scape, Before proceeding a brief summary of this Act is
in order. The Act kept separate legislative bodies for
St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix while changing their
names from "Colonial" to "Municipal" Councils. These
Municipal Councils were to have nine members (St. Croix)
and seven members (St. Thomas-St. John) and were to meet
in joint session to consider matters affecting the Virgin
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Islands as a unit. The Councils controlled the qualifica
tions of their members and set their own pay. They were
elected by universal suffrage among citizens over twenty-
one years old and literate in English. The last require
ment, incidentally, denied the vote to something like
twenty percent of the adult population since according to
the 1930 Census 21.4 percent of persons over twenty-one
were illiterate. The governor’s powers were extensive.
He had the power to introduce bills and budgets and had
general veto power and partial, or item, veto over money
bills. The veto could only be overridden by a two-thirds
majority of the Council and agreement from the President
of the United States. The governor had general control
over all departments and agencies, could grant pardons,
declare martial law, and could even issue unilateral
regulations as long as they were not inconsistent with
statute law. He also could create executive jobs and
staff them at his discretion if the salaries for such
positions were not paid out of the Islands' treasuries.
This was a privilege which many governors made use of in
asserting their independence since it was not terribly
difficult to have new positions included in the general
Department of the Interior budget. The Organic Act also
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explicitly extended all constitutional rights to the
Islanders and gave the Councils the taxing power, the
usual governmental powers over property (eminent domain,
purchase, etc.), capacity to sue and be sued, and the other
powers usually associated with local government.
As in all matters which would give the masses
more participation in government, the native ruling class
opposed the progressive features of the Organic Act. The
Act of 1936 had been preceded by a process of hearings,
proposed bills and amendments going back to 1923-1924
when a moderate proposal jointly authored by Rothschild
Francis and A.A. Berle - then general counsel for the
American Civil Liberties Union - was killed through the
joint efforts of the Colonial Councils and the naval
g o v e r n o r . 15 This pulling and hauling continued through
the 1920's and early 1930's. In 1926 when another draft
of an Organic Act was before congressional committees,
127 St. Thomas businessmen petitioned the Congress to
Condensed from the Act as printed in Appendix I.
^^Ibid., pp. 224-228.
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continue the Navy status quo. This petition was sent
under the official auspices of the St. Thomas Colonial
Council.1^ Later in that year when Senator Bingham
visited the Islands he received a resolution from the
St. Thomas Council opposing the revision of the government,
and whenever the Navy testified on any proposal it
always favored maximum executive power and minimum
democracy. In sum, the opposition of both the Navy and
the local elite combined with the multiplicity of bills
and the general slowness and disinterest of the Congress
prevented any democratization of the local government
from the early 1920's to the early 1930's.
The explanation of why an Organic Act was passed
in 1936 and what its content was becomes clear when we
consider the contrast between Navy and civilian rule.
Near the start of the Pearson regime the Secretary of the
Interior made known that he was interested in a new
systematic constitution for the Virgin Islands and advised
Governor Pearson to draft a bill with the help of the
Councils. As can be imagined, the Councils were not
especially eager to help in such a project and so the
16lbid., p. 249.
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resulting bill, submitted in 1933, was almost entirely
the work of Governor Pearson and Lieutenant Governor
Cramer. During the hearing held in January of 1933, "it
developed that considerable difference of opinion existed
between the governor and the councils as to certain
important provisions," as Evans understated.17 The
maneuvering of the governor and the Councils, including
formal protests by the Councils that they were not
consulted on the draft, make an interesting story; but
more germane is a comparison of the Pearson-Cramer draft
and the final Act which was adopted in 1936. Except for
matters of detail they are almost identical, and what
changes there were concerned things like a delegate in
Washington and some minor powers of the Councils - in
other words, the governor's extraordinarily wide powers
outlined above emerged almost unscathed from the Con
gressional legislative process. The whole series of events
is instructive because they again demonstrate power rela
tions in the Islands. The U.S. 6olonial administration was
fundamentally conservative and in de facto alliance with
the white and light-skinned elite. When these two groups
^^Ibid., p. 249.
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agreed on a policy, in this case opposition to any
democratization of the local government, the alliance
was unassailable. When, however, the executive found
itself in basic opposition to the elite, its superior
power position as the centrally appointed and locally
irresponsible colonial administration carried the day -
certainly the situation one would expect in a colonial
relationship. Also notice that the mass of Virgin
Islanders counted for little at any point in the process.
Except for the universal suffrage provision which,
after all, was certainly inevitable under American
administration - the wonder is that the people were
denied such a basic right for twenty years of American
rule - there were no provisions which greatly damaged
the local ruling class' position. Various authors have
seen the Organic Act as the event which broke the power
of the native ruling class. V. Hill called it and the
subsequent political developments a "social revolution,"
but this is certainly wrong. First of all, significant
political movement on St. Croix did not take place until
after World War II. Much more to the point, however, is
that the social changes brought about by the partial
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democratization of the local government - the Islanders
still had no control over the selection of a governor or
the governor's major staff - were marginal at best. As
will be shown, the causes for the fast growth and social
change of the I960's are to be found in alterations in
the mode of production and not in the vagaries of small-
island politics.
The immediate expression of political interest
among the masses was the foundation of the Progressive
Guide, a political party founded in St. Thomas in 1937.
The Guide was a liberal. New Deal type of party and among
the planks of its platform were: minimum wages and hours,
workman's compensation, slum clearance and public housing,
retirement systems, recreational facilities, increased
educational expenditures, and so forth. These goals were
avidly pursued, especially in the Guide's early militant
years, and most were achieved, although at a much lower
level of benefits than on the mainland. Progressive Guide
politics plus various wartime Interior Department policies
were thus mainly responsible for the extension of most of
the American welfare state to the Virgins.
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If the political content of all this was fairly
conventional, the style and practices of the Guide were
not. Applicants were "investigated" and screened much in
the manner of a social club, the type of organization the
masses were most familiar with, and great reliance was
placed on mass meetings accompanied by flowery and militant
oratory in the best West Indian tradition. The Progressive
Guide was soon successful on St. Thomas and by 1940 had
captured all the seats on the Municipal Council.
The new party was much like mainland parties in
one other important respect. Although basically repre
senting the workers, the Guide never defined itself as a
working-class party. Like the U.S. National Democratic
Party, the Guide was, to some extent, a coalition which
expressed working-class interests somewhat more than
other local parties.
C. The War and After
The Second World War affected the Virgins in the
same ways that it affected the mainland U.S. It
temporarily solved the problems of unemployment and
stagnation through greatly expanded war production. In
the Virgins this meant direct employment in military
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installations which were established there for the dura
tion, greatly increased rum production to meet mainland
liquor demand left largely unsatisfied by the conversion
of domestic distilleries to alchohol production for war
use, reduction of the labor force because of enlistments
and the Selective Service, and general employment multi
plier effects caused by the wide upswing in economic
activity. This prosperity was completely artificial and
temporary, however. With the end of hostilities, and
even to some extent before the end, the Virgin Islands
began to sink back into the stagnation they had "enjoyed"
in the 1930's.
Two factors which the War tended to exacerbate were
racism and a slowing of social progress. The increased
racial tensions resulted from an influx of white military
personnel into the Islands and the segregation policy of
the Army which offended the Islanders who enthusiastically
joined the armed forces after Pearl Harbor. In the case
of the Island recruits, their experience was particularly
painful since they were assigned to New Orleans - of all
places - to work as stevedores.
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The Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands G.I.s were the victims of discrimination in all its forms in Camp Plauche, and throughout the city of New Orleans. On the buses and streetcars they were forced to sit in the rear in areas designated by signs which read 'FOR COLORED PATRONS.' As a consequence of this and similar incidents, the G.I.s confiscated and burned all the segregating signs they could get hold of. They lambasted inhospitable movie managers, rude bartenders, taxi drivers, businessmen, and even the clergy who attempted to keep them from worshipping in white churches. Thereafter, the city of New Orleans made efforts to spare the men from racism by providing them with special buses and instructing the business community to show some consideration.
Finally, the authorities realized that these men were not only in the wrong place and with the wrong people, but that they could not passively accept the Army's discriminatory practices while being willing to risk their lives to 'save Democracy.' They were shipped cross country to Vancouver, then to Hawaii, where they sat out the war loading and unloading ships. Shortly after V-J Day most of them were mustered out.18
In the Islands tensions also ran high against immigrant
West Indians who illegally entered the Virgins in search
of employment with the active connivance of the U.S.
l^.D. Creque, The U.S. Virgins and the Eastern Caribbean (Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 1968), p. 116.
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Department of Labor in the early years of the w a r . 19
More generally, however, the little progressive social
change which had been in progress was slowed due to the
pressing and immediate needs of the war effort. Thus,
the war years were a sort of prosperous suspended-
animation period for the Virgin Islands during which
the people were relatively well off but without positive
socio-economic evolution. As G.K. Lewis put it, "The
general outcome of all this (the war, WJK)..., was that
the Virgin Islands entered the postwar period after 1945
as a colonial society with most of its major ills
surviving in virulent, even aggravated, form. Both
economic organization and social structure remained
pretty much as before, with some modifications brought
about by the post-1936 politico-legislative changes."^0
Prospects were poor as the Islands entered the
1946-1954 years. St. Croix was practically unchanged
socially, economically and politically except for the
stop-gap program of VICO. The power of universal suffrage
had not yet been utilized by the masses, although this
^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 94.
2Qlbid., p. 99.
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was to change soon under the leadership of a new genera
tion of politicians who had served on the mainland during
the war and had picked up a greater sense of the pos
sibilities of democratic action there. St. Thomas,
except for the political changes described earlier which
were now mired in growing conservatism within the
Progressive Guide, remained socially and economically
stagnant. The nine-year span, 1946-1954, saw few changes,
the main one being the formulation and adoption of the
Revised Organic Act of 1954, which was important in
setting the stage for the rapid growth of the I960's.
After a review of the events and conditions of these
years we will turn to a treatment of the cultural history
of the period to 1954. This is the cultural history of
socio-economic stagnation in which this writer hopes to
show the formative influence the mode of production had
on cultural evolution in the Virgin Islands.
The documents, both published and unpublished,
paint a dreary picture of the post-war condition of the
Virgin Islands. An unpublished survey of the economy
done in 1947 and somewhat clumsily titled, "Report to
the Governor of the Virgin Islands on Population and
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Economie Factors for Planning in the Virgin Islands"
revealed some rather shocking facts. Frederic Bartlett
estimated the median family income for 1946 at $430 for
St. Thomas and $339 for St. Croix.21 He went on to
analyze the tax returns for 1946 in Table 7, reproduced
below:22
TABLE 7
Income Reported Number of Families Reporting
St. Thomas- St. John St. Croix Total
$500 to 999.99 510 316 726 $1,000 to 1,999.99 462 128 590 $2,000 to 4,999.99 308 115 423 More than $5,000.00 66 25 __91
Total 1,346 584 1,830
Estimated number of families on each Island 5,840 4,552 10,392
Number of tax returns 23% 13% 17% as a percentage of the number of families
^^Frederic Bartlett, Report to the Governor of the Virgin Islands on Population and Economic Factors for Planning in the Virgin Islands (Charlotte Amalie: mimeo, 1947), p. 49.
^^Ibid., p. 62.
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Most statistics are dry and often conceal more than they
reveal, but the fact that so few Island families made
enough income to even file a tax return is graphic
evidence of the dire poverty of the Virgin Islands at
the time. The table also gives a general idea that income
was very poorly distributed, a fact confirmed by the
previous analysis of income data in the 1950 Census.
We can get the flavor of the economic dilemmas
of the late 1940's and early 1950's through an examination
of Vico's activities on St. Croix. As Governor Hastie
stated in his Annual Report for 1947, "The Virgin
Islands Company continues to stand between the people of
St. Croix and destitution."23 The wartime full employ
ment peak of 1943 was long past and VICO's sugar
growing operation had rapidly taken on the characteristic
it had in the 1930's - a relief-make-work project. All
company operations were highly labor intensive and
usually obviously overstaffed, and the continental
23william Hastie, Annual Report, 1947. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C., p. 11.
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managements were powerless to mechanize and rationalize
because such actions would have caused increased unemploy
ment, These undesirable employment effects were explicitly
recognized by all concerned and largely determined policy
in these areas. The Crucians, who were basically unin
terested in cane work, were very poor laborers. Their
disinterest, combined with the make-work atmosphere of
the whole operation, led to minimum effort from almost
all concerned. Company officials, many of whom were white
southerners, were usually quite close to the Crucian ruling
class who have been known since the 1930's as the "Royal
Families."24 (The foregoing comments are based on an
interview with Albert Waters ton, who was Vice President
of VICO from 1946 through 1948.) The St. Croix Labor
In an interview with the author, Ex-govemor Paiewonsky related a story about how this name came about. According to Paiewonsky, when VICO was first set up, the local elite families tried everything they could to monopolize the more desirable positions with the Company. It seems their attempts were rather high-handed, which led a cane worker to exclaim, "Who the hell do they think they are, the royal families?". There would undoubtedly be dispute as to exactly who is "royal" but there is little doubt that the Armstrongs, Herwins, Skeoches, Canadays, Flemings, Nelthropps and Pittersons would be included, and the author would think the DeChaberts and Laweatzes might also belong. On St. Thomas the author would nominate the Barbels, Boschultes, Brins, Creques, Hartmans, Kirketerps, Limas, Lindquists, Lockharts, Paiewonskys, and possibly the Quetels and Shulterbrandts for the same honors.
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Union, which under D. Hamilton Jackson and others had
often fought militantly on behalf of the workers, had
degenerated through ineffective leadership and the poor
bargaining position brought about by job scarcity into
an ally and appendage of management.
By this time the "royal families" had succeeded
in integrating VICO quite fully into their interests.
They met the continental management socially and
entertained in the old-time plantation style. They
often held official positions : Ward Canaday sat on the
board of directors and Norman Skeoch was actually
president of VICO during the early 1950's. All this led
to considerable benefits for the Crucian ruling class.
At first they simply bought molasses and alcohol from VICO
for their rum distilleries, but as the rum business grew
they put pressure on VICO and the Congress to phase out
Vico's rum distilling altogether. As F. Lewisohn tells
it, "This unique instance of the Federal government being
indirectly in the liquor business was challenged later
by the private sector of the rum industry when it was back
on its own feet and felt the nip of the official rum. This
prim proselyting against Federal competition finally took
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effect...it took an Act of Congress to shut down the pot-
stills at Bethlehem."25 Once VICO had been forced out of
the distilling business, it had to find an outlet for its
large molasses output (molasses is a secondary product of
sugar refining). This the private distillers were ready
to provide. In hearings before the House Committee on
Government Operations in 1957, the president of VIGOR?
(the company had been rechartered, reorganized, and
renamed the Virgin Islands Corporation - VIGOR? - in 1948)
revealed that a contract had been signed between VIGOR?
and the Paiewonsky and Skeoch rum interests in 1951 for
the life of the company with an automatic renewal clause
if the Corporation's charter were renewed in 1959. This
contract set a price of five cents per gallon for the
entire output of VIGOR? molasses. The market price of
molasses delivered from Puerto Rico was about twenty cents.
Not counting the transportation cost which VIGOR? would
have had no right to charge, this amounted to a subsidy
from VIGOR? to the private rum industry of around twelve
to fourteen cents per gallon. Upon hearing the numbers,
25iewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, p. 379.
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Rep, Chudoff of Pennsylvania incredulously asked, "So
actually you are making a present of the molasses to the
local distilleries?", to which VICORP president Kenneth
Bartlett lamely replied, "That is right."26 Bartlett
also testified that VICORP's distilleries had been sold
off to these same interests for $68,000 when their book
value was $93,000.27
The generally depressed and demoralized conditions
within VICO and VICORP prevailed throughout the Islands
and in all social and economic sectors. The documents
dealing with Caribbean conditions during this period all
painted a picture of the Virgin Islands as a society in
permanent decline with no reasonable prospects for improve
ment. Tourism was only a dream. There were no decent
tourist facilities and no capital since the only bank was
so conservative that it was very reluctant to give com
mercial loans. Transportation was limited - mass air
travel was still in its infancy, and there was the
Operations, Activities of the Virgin Islands Government and the Virgin Islands Corporation. Hearings (85th Congress, 1st Session), Washington: Government Printing Office, 1957, p. 19.
27lbid., p. 522.
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perennial problem of potable water deficiency. As Albert
Waterston, Vice President of VICO during the late 1940's,
put it, "If anyone had told me in 1947 that tourism would
be the main industry of the Virgin Islands I'd have told
him he was crazy. "28 In 1949, A. Oxholm submitted his
thoughts to Congress in the form of an unpublished report
he called The Virgin Islands of the United States: An
Opportunity and a Challenge. In it he stated that tourism
would be difficult to get going but he felt the Virgins
might be attractive to one group of tourists - vacationing
Puerto Ricans 129
In sum, the 1946-1954 years were socially and
economically stagnant. The general conservative
tendencies of close ties between government and business,
domination by the traditional elite, and a lack of change
in the mode of production were prevalent.
The period did not see much political progress.
The Progressive Guide had grown conservative over the
years and in 1948 some of the more forward-looking
^^From conversation with the author.
29a . Oxholm, The Virgin Islands of the U.S.: An Opportunity and a Challenge (Charlotte Amalie : unpublished, 1949), p. 16.
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members broke away and formed the Liberal Party, The
Liberals were unsuccessful in the 1948 elections and
rapidly faded away. In 1952 similar forces formed the
Virgin Islands Unity Party which was able to replace the
Progressive Guide as the liberal force against a
Republican-Democratic conservative coalition. Progressive
politics came to St. Croix in the form of the returning
G.I.s, especially Walter I.M. Hodge and Ludvig Harrigan
who were both elected to the St. Croix Municipal Council
and who generally pursued the same kind of liberal
politics promoted by the Progressive Guide and its
successor, the Unity Party.30
Important political issues of the day included
the reform of the Organic Act of 1936. The demands of
the local progressives centered around four ideas : an
elected governor, a single legislature, a single
treasury, and a resident commissioner in Washington, D.C.
The demand for an elected governor was an elementary
democratic demand while the resident commissioner was
meant to bring some dignity and regularity to the
^®Hill, Rise to Recognition, pp. 101-102.
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relationship with Washington, since before only informal
contacts and under-the-rug deals characterized representa
tion in the Capital. The single legislature idea was to
guarantee an end to the interisland rivalries and needless
duplication of government structures, and the single
treasury was designed to end duplication and the excessive
reliance of each municipality on its own narrow and
precarious revenue base.
When the Organic Act was finally revised in 1954,
little progress was achieved toward these goals, but that
is better left for the chapter dealing with the years
from 1954 to 1961.
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A. Some Preliminary Considerations
Studying cultural development and mass psychology
from an historical materialist viewpoint relies on
hypotheses (2), (3) and (4) for a general framework.
As the reader will recall, these are;
(2) The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.
(3) In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.
(4) The totality of these relations of produc tion constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.
We seek to relate cultural and psychological phenomena to
elements of the base. This is not to reduce such
phenomena to the base but rather is an attempt to chart
206
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the influence of the base on the superstructure with the
expectation that the influence will be great. Other,
non-basic, influences also play an important part and
must be admitted in appropriate places, but given the
nature of this study, base-superstructure relations are
the primary interest.
The forces and relations of production in the
Virgin Islands from the eighteenth century to the 1950's
have been described in some detail. The task now becomes
taking the psycho-cultural traits present in the groups
described and those traits common to all groups and
trace the influence of the forces and relations of
production in their formation. A further distinction in
this area is between cultural phenomena such as art and
music, religion, dress, marriage and the family, and
direct imports of culture; and psychological phenomena
such as aggression, deference, ego-centrism, work habits,
secretiveness and class consciousness.
B. Cultural Manifestations
Art and music have never been prominent in
Virgin Island life. The upper class was preoccupied with
business operations and values and during the Danish
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period many of the white elite in both business and
government administration saw their residence as temporary.
They were out to make their pile and return home. In
Western society fine art has been primarily commissioned
and supported by the rich. Consequently, an upper class
which saw itself as temporary residents, permeated with
business values and looking to the home country for
culture, was hardly likely to give rise to or support
a native tradition in the fine arts. Although in reality
much of the elite were creoles, that is native white or
light-skinned families who had lived in the Islands for
generations, that fact is not at all inconsistent with
the attitude of looking "home" for culture which is very
common in colonial societies. An extreme example of this
attitude comes from the history of St. Croix. After the
insurrection of 1878, a letter of protest against the
way Governor Garde had handled the insurrection was sent
to the Danish government by "resident British landowners."
One of these "British" landowners was one William MacEvoy
whose family had lived on St. Croix for 150 years, had
been naturalized Danes since the eighteenth century and
one of whose ancestors, Christopher MacEvoy, Jr., had been
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Royal Chamberlain to a Danish KingII in any case, the
regime of an upper class attempting to exploit both labor
and land to the utmost in a colonial situation was
exceedingly infertile ground for the development of fine
arts and, as has been pointed out, the beaux arts
tradition was never important in the Virgin Islands.
A folk art based on African forms also failed to
develop. In the chapter on the Danish period some reasons
for this were given, which included a breaking up of
family structure, outright prohibition of African
ceremonies and cultural events, and the establishment
of Christianity among the slaves through missionary work
with the slaveowners' encouragement. There is little
doubt that the ruling class broke up and prohibited
African culture largely for class reasons. The ruling
class saw African culture as a point of potential revo
lutionary organization among the slaves and so opposed it
as a threat to the economic status quo and its class
position.
% . Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), p. 122.
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As previously mentioned, no native modifications
of Christianity grew up. Religion was orthodox, mostly
conservative Protestant, in both form and content.
Certainly the orthodoxy and conservatism of the churches
is easily explicable as an expression of ruling class
interest since the churches relied on the rich for
financial support, and also since the clergy was always
white and usually European or American-born. Another
reason which can be easily overlooked is that the churches
were not segregated. This lack of segregation ensured
control of each church to the elite and as a consequence
never gave the native blacks the opportunity of evolving
an independent institution. Thus, services, modes of
behavior, dress, music, etc., were all indistinguishable
from what one would expect to find in an all white
orthodox Lutheran, Moravian or Anglican church in the
U.S. or Western Europe.
Dress can often reveal aspects of culture. Unlike
some tropical inhabitants. Virgin Islanders dressed very
conservatively no matter what their class. Having fine
clothes was, and still is, extremely important, and during
the era under discussion it was reported that people went
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without food in order to be respectably dressed. Styles
included dark suits for men always worn with white shirts
and ties, and fashionable mainland styled clothes for
women in solid colors or white.2 This custom of
conservative dress persists today. In government offices
the native bureaucrats will almost invariably be dressed
in suits and ties, but continental bureaucrats who are
often their superiors will almost always be attired in
light, colorful sport clothes with neither jacket nor tie.
A native man would never think of going out without a
shirt even on the hottest days. Such dress habits, which,
incidentally, are common throughout the Caribbean and seem
so irrational in a tropical climate, are a consequence of
class emulation. The mulatto middle class, always trying
to rise in status, copied the clothing styles of the
Danes and other upper class whites during the pre-American
period. Working class people, also constantly trying to
climb the social ladder, imitated the mulattoes in turn.
This class emulation was quite uninhibited, particularly
because African modes of dress and canons of taste were
2j .A. Jarvis, Brief History of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas: The Art Shop, 1938), p. 194.
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destroyed along with other aspects of African culture.
The forms of marriage and family during this
period also trace their origin to the mode of production.
There was a definite class character to marriage with the
upper class entering into formal, legal monogamous
marriage; the lower class was usually content with
consensual unions which often amounted to a sort of serial
monogamy; and the middle class lying between the two in
terms of marriage arrangements. Such customs are
basically throwbacks to slavery. During the slave regime
marriage was forbidden or discouraged among slaves for
the negative reason that the family is the main carrier
of culture. Breaking up the slave's family was one of the
ways to smash potentially subversive cultural forms. The
positive reason was that the slaveowners felt free love
was conducive to a high birthrate and thus a rapid
augmentation of their capital.^ The white upper class,
of course, simply carried on their European marriage
traditions which their light-skinned compatriots copied
as an essential attribute of upper classiness. A similar
^V.A. Hill, Sr., Rise to Recognition (Private Printing, 1971), p. 32.
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origin applies to class differences in sexual behavior.
Upper class Virgin Island families had traditional
puritanical-Protestant concepts of sex inherited from
their bourgeois European ancestors, while the working
class had a much more relaxed attitude. Among the lower
class illegitimacy was not condemned, nor was pre-marital
sex, or for that matter sexual relationships which never
led to marriage (the serial monogamy just mentioned).
These attitudes towards sex also seem to be throwbacks
to slavery where permanent relationships were discouraged
and the bearing of children was encouraged.
Another aspect of family attitudes which may be
similarly traceable is the emphasis on procreation among
men. In the Virgin Islands it was not how many women one
had conquered sexually but how many children he had
fathered which gave a man prestige among his fellows.4
This emphasis on procreative power is present in other
West Indian communities with similar histories of slavery.
It seems reasonable that the respect commanded by fertility
stems from the old planter encouragement of childbreaing
4g .Ko Lewis, The Virgin Islands. A Caribbean Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 242.
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among his slaves. Given such sexual attitudes, it may
seem odd that Virgin Island parents, particularly lower
class ones, never discussed sex with their children or
attempted to educate them about it in any way. This
seeming anomaly helps prove the point that these sex
customs are economic and class based. If free love were
an ethical or ideological phenomenon, one would expect it
to be discussed in such terms and parents to instruct
their children as parents usually do in matters of ethics
and ideals. The fact that such instruction did not take
place in the Virgin Islands illustrates that this sexual
behavior was not so based. Rather, this aspect of
sexual behavior is much better explained as a class
attribute and the lack of ethical instruction about the
subject shows that these attitudes do not have their roots
in ideas but rather in class history and oppression, which
in turn is a product of the economic system.
C. Mass Psychology
Many mass psychological traits of Virgin Islanders
also seem to have roots in their economic history. Most
obvious is the general aversion to manual labor on the
part of all Virgin Islanders which continues today. The
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association, of course, is with slave work, the lowest
class of occupations reserved for the lowest class of
people. One rather extreme manifestation of disdain for
manual labor was the custom that a native would never
carry a package down a main street. During the early
years of tourism, natives were constantly amazed to see
obviously wealthy tourists who could well afford to hire
someone to carry their packages calmly walking down
Dronningens Gade - now referred to as "Main Street" -
with their arms full of merchandise they had just bought
at the freeport stores
Virgin Islanders were and still are quick to take
offense and often are quite aggressive. This aggression,
however, was usually confined to loud and highly insulting
verbal exchanges or aggression through the use of obeah.
Physical aggression was rare. Although the question of
why the aggression index was high but the amount of
physical violence low is highly complex, and one which
this writer readily admits not being able to fully explain.
^Albert A. Campbell, "St. Thomas Negroes - A Study in Personality and Culture," Psychological Monographs, American Psychological Association, Vol. 55, No. 5, 1943, p. 54.
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there is at least one aspect of it rooted in class
structure. As pointed out earlier, the police and legal
system were instruments of class rule, not impartial
arbiters of justice. Crimes committed by lower class
persons were much more severely punished than the same
crimes committed by upper class people. Beyond this the
police were generally brutal and not responsible to the
bulk of the citizenry. The crimes most savagely dealt
with were crimes of violence, especially when they took
place across class lines with a poor person being the
perpetrator. This is certainly reasonable when we
remember the radical class-race cleavage in Virgin
Islands' society and it is not hard to imagine that the
ruling class often felt itself in jeopardy on both class
and race grounds. The knowledge of the class nature of
justice bred a considerable fear of the police into the
masses. Even in 1940, Campbell noted that lower class
persons would never go near the Fort (police headquarters)
unless they were directly s u m m o n e d . 6 Consequently, at
least part of the Islanders' reluctance to resort to
physical violence, even though they are often quite
6lbid.. p. 60.
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aggressive, is probably traceable to a long history of
differential punishments meted out on a class basis for
crime or even the suspicion of crime.
Another peculiarity of aggression in Virgin
Islanders is that they tended - and still tend - to be
considerably more aggressive towards people of lower
class status. This was so common that lower class persons
generally interpreted discrimination by continentals as
class-inspired, even though it was often simply American-
style racism.7
Islanders have always been very conscious of
deference. They demanded it from their children - this
is true of all classes - from all subordinates in the work
place, and, more generally, from all class inferiors.
This expectation of deference also had its origin in the
social relations of slavery, where the class positions of
master and slave automatically carried obligatory patterns
and amounts of overlordship for the former and deference
for the latter. Children were constantly taught "respect"
and the most serious infraction of manners a child could
make was to be "rude" or "talk back" (these are all the
^Ibid.. pp. 72 and 82.
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Islanders' words) to a parent - the family superior - or
any other adult.8 Another aspect of deference was the
readiness of most natives to give greater deference to a
white official than a black one in the same position.9
Again, the attitudes towards deference were a clear
result of the class structure, both slavery and the
continuing sharp class cleavages in Virgin Island
society since Emancipation.
Probably the most noted feature of Virgin
Islanders was their ego-centrism and inflated self esteem.
In commenting on this, Jarvis says that while most people
had to study to become engineers or architects or scien
tists, Virgin Islanders felt they were simply b o m with
such attributes.10 This rather annoying conceit grew out
of the mode of production. In comments on this phenomenon
in St. Thomas, Campbell pointed out that St. Thomian
society was basically one of highly competitive capitalism
^Ibid.. p. 74.
9lbid.
^^J.A. Jarvis, The Virgin Islands and Their People (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1944), p. 40.
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with its tendency to develop hyper-individualism com
pletely unrestrained by the communal values present in
European and even to some extent in American capitalist
society. He was so struck by the permeation of this
hyper-individualist kind of capitalist personality that
he characterized that aspect of Virgin Island society as
"social laissez faire." H
The Virgins have always been what we might call
in contemporary slang a "rip-off" society. The Danes
founded their colony on a pure commercial basis and
generation after generation of sharp merchants on St.
Thomas and rapacious planters on St. Croix exploited land
and labor ruthlessly and then left for Europe with their
more or less ill-gotten wealth. Those members of the
ruling class of long residence shared this attitude. There
was, for example, almost no philanthropy, and one would
expect philanthropy from the rich if they regarded the
Virgins as home, a society worth preserving and helping.
There was also a lack of institutions leading to group
action and concern in the lower class. As pointed out
^^Campbell, "A Study in Personality and Culture," p. 68.
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earlier, racial solidarity was discouraged by the social
policy of splitting the colored population into a free
colored middle class and a black laboring class, and this
policy was enshrined in both formal law and custom. There
was also the more general Caribbean desire to "raise the
color," that is to marry a lighter-skinned person than
oneself in order to have lighter-skinned children and
eventually become indistinguishable from the resident
whites. Consequently, race was not a unifying force in
the colored population. As Hill states in a passage
already quoted, the Virgins were "...a society poor in
associational life, with the few significant associations
that existed organized autocratically...," so extra-
economic associations did not provide a base for communal
feeling, either. Nuclear family ties were weak, with
mother and/or father often absent, especially in lower
class households. Some of the cultural reasons for
unstable families have already been noted, but we should
not forget that a prime reason for motherless and/or
fatherless households - the grandmother usually took over
in the case where both parents were absent - was directly
economic. The parents had to emigrate (usually to New
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York) in search of work that was not available in the
economically depressed Virgin Islands.
Although Campbell's analysis deals specifically
with St. Thomas, all these general psychological charac
teristics could be found on St. Croix. At first sight
this might seem anomalous, considering the agricultural
base of St. Croix, but on deeper analysis there turns out
to be no contradiction. The agriculture of St. Croix was
pure capitalist plantation agriculture. The growers
produced very little food - most of the food was imported -
they ran their plantations on a commercial basis. They
were often absentees, leaving the plantations to hired
overseers. The workers were rural proletarians; they
worked for wages. There were few small farms and little
tenantry; the laborers lived in rented quarters identical
to urban slums except for their location and the fact that
they were one story rather than four or five story tene
ments. The relations of production on St. Croix had
nothing to do with the Western European-American pattern
of family farms. They were those of industry and commerce
much more than smallholding agriculture. These relations
of production combined with other similarities such as a
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common government administration, common social policy and
common laws produced similar psychological traits. This
does not imply that Crucians and St. Thomians were
identical. We have already seen the differences in class
conflict, politics and the more obvious nature of
oppression which made St. Croix a tenser and more
violent society than St. Thomas. These are differences
which have led to a real feeling of separateness on the
part of Crucians and St. Thomians. But the similarities
are also striking and have led to many common traits.
The point of this analysis has been to comprehend the
causes of both these similarities and differences.
Another prominent aspect of the social psychology
of Virgin Islanders in the pre-1961 period was an ex
ceedingly high degree of class consciousness. We have
already noted that a strong inegalitarian class structure
existed in reality which was a direct outgrowth of the
economic system. But just because a class structure
exists does not mean that people need be conscious of it.
Class consciousness is often submerged or overridden by
other perceptions. Among highly stratified, persecuted
minorities identification as a minority group member is
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often seen as more important than one's class position in
the group. This is very common in history and such diverse
groups as the early Christians, contemporary American
blacks and the Jews in almost every historical period are
some examples which come readily to mind. A lack of
class consciousness can even be present generally in a
large capitalist nation, most obviously the United States
where people are not only relatively un-class conscious
but even anti-class conscious - meaning that they actively
deny the presence of class in their society.
This was certainly not the case with the Virgin
Islands. There is absolute unanimity among all observers
that class consciousness was very strong among all
Islanders, no matter what their class position.
Concerning the upper class, Campbell notes, "They seldom
marry below their own color and even less below their own
class. They scrupulously avoid any contact with the
Negro masses and are not reluctant to express their
contempt for this g r o u p . (author's emphasis) And
again, "Social contact tends to keep within class lines.
l^Ibid.. p. 34.
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and there is a great deal of discrimination against lower
class people."13 In a book entitled Cultural Aspects of
Delusion, written in the late 1950's, the psychiatrist
Edwin Weinstein studied relationships between culture and
delusional mental illness and, among other things, pur
ported to find no identifiable classes in the Virgin
Islands. That was an interesting psychiatric happening in
itself because there is considerable evidence within his
own text which contradicts that assertion. But even
Weinstein was forced to admit, "While there is a great
deal of difficulty in making objective determinations of
social class. Virgin Islanders, especially persons in the
upper class, are very 'class c o n s c i o u s (author's
emphasis) With this admission and the evidence presented
on the past and to be presented on the present, it is the
emphasized part of the sentence which is to be taken
seriously. It would certainly be a rather amazing mass
delusion to have a "very 'class conscious'" society
without classes.
^^Ibid.. p. 46.
^^Edwin A. Weinstein, Cultural Aspects of Delusion (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), pp. 114-115.
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Class consciousness extended just as strongly to
the middle and lower classes. The middle class, like
social climbers everywhere, were extremely status-
conscious and attempted to differentiate themselves as
definitively as possible from the masses. Differentia
tion techniques included conspicuous consumption,
particularly in dress, aggressiveness to subordinates
of J.'wer class status in the workplace and servants in
the home, and various public practices such as harassment
of lower class persons in need of public services (many
of the middle class were low and middle level government
workers). The lower class was also impregnated with class
consciousness. Various traits already discussed, such as
deference, desire for white officials, the peculiar forms
of aggression, etc., all point this up. Class conscious
ness was so strong that in fact, "A great many lower-
class people do not recognize race prejudice when they
encounter it; their inclination is to interpret discrimina
tion as springing from class differentiation."15 That
the Virgin Islanders were highly class conscious at this
time has never been seriously disputed, but although it
15Campbell, "A Study in Personality and Culture," p « 82.
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was strong, Island class consciousness was not militant -
to say nothing of being revolutionary - especially on St.
Thomas. There was a great deal of resentment against the
class system on the part of the lower class and even the
middle class, but this resentment was seldom channeled
into social action. Typical reactions included generalized
resentment, self deprecation (especially of blackness),
frenzied status-seeking and social climbing and often
emigration to New York. This absence of direct challenge
to the social system strengthened it by isolating actual
and potential militants. Consequently, in the Virgin
Islands a high degree of class consciousness did not
challenge the conservative and inegalitarian social
structure.
This is not a dissertation on cultural development
or social psychology. Those are topics which this author
is not competent to address in a fully scholarly and
professional way. This is a study of socio-economic
development and as such cannot treat these other topics
in the depth they may deserve. However, they cannot
simply be ignored either, since the effects culture and
social psychology have had on the form and rate of socio
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economic development in most societies have been great.
Consequently, this writer has chosen to describe these
aspects in general terms to make the reader aware of
them, and has attempted and will continue to attempt to
show their relevance to the process of socio-economic
development. Also, since this study is approaching
development from an explicit point of view and set of
hypotheses, the author has tried to show that reasonable
accountings of at least some cultural forms and mass
psychology - and their development and change - can be
gotten through employment of the hypotheses and method.
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1954-1961, GETTING SET FOR GROWTH
A. Constitutional Changes; Revision of the Organic Act of 1936
The relations of the Virgin Islands to the United
States in 1954, which many Islanders wanted altered
through revision of the 1936 Organic Act, can be summed
up in one word - colonialism. In this there had been
little change from the Pearson administration (1931-1935).
The powers of the governor under the 1936 Organic Act
have already been outlined. Especially relevant here is
the complete lack of responsibility to the Islanders on
the part of both the governor and his most important staff.
Since the governor was appointed by the Department of the
Interior and not responsible to the Islanders, his
loyalty was to the Department and this had several note
worthy effects. First of all, whenever there was a
conflict between Interior and Congressional committees
the governor of the Virgin Islands would often find
himself an unwilling participant in the struggle. The
228
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most famous such case was Senator Tydings' investigation
of Governor Pearson which was actually an attempt by the
Senator to embarrass Secretary Ickes. Pearson, not Ickes,
was the casualty.1 This phenomenon, always harmful to good
government in the Virgins, was so common that Jarvis
entitled one of the chapters of A Brief History of the
Virgin Islands, "Northern Party Politics and Departmental
Struggle in Washington Interfere with Orderly Progress in
the Virgin Islands," a cumbersome but admirably explicit
title. Because the United States had not developed a
colonial service on a European model, considerable fric
tion often arose between the governor and the office in
Washington. When the governor went directly to Congress
for appropriations which Interior had neither the power
nor the money to supply. Interior saw these actions as
attempts to bypass them.2 To make matters worse, since
there was no permanent representative of the Islands in
Washington, the governor and his staff had to spend
considerable time there. This was insulting to the
^G.K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 78-80.
^Ibid., p. 99.
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Islanders who preferred to have their governor readily
accessible and it also made personal contacts the main
avenue of communication - a procedure which gives the
appearance if not the substance of impropriety. These
kinds of relations did little to change the old paternal
istic pattern of relations between Virgin Islanders and
their government, both local and central, and the general
philosophy of most groups remained one of petitioning
(sensitive Islanders called it begging) government
authorities to do things they should have been doing
anyway and things the people might have done for them
selves. The editor of the Daily News observed.
We have become so deteriorated under this pro cedure (the constant petitioning, WJK) that we can now judge the ability of our varied administrators solely by the appropriations they have been able to procure while in Washington...little or no consideration is given to their true ability or experience in Virgin Islands affairs. This explains the appalling aimlessness, the total absence of any comprehensive plan or policy set out for these islands. We are simply the victims of political patronage, ever subject to the wiles and caprices of myriad personalities, whose tenure of office is controlled solely by the irrational laws of political expediency.3
Caribbean Lilliput. p. 78.
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When the Organic Act was finally revised in 1954
it did not address most of these weaknesses and others
mentioned previously. The Revised Organic Act of 1954
should be seen in two contrasting lights. Economically
its provisions were important in encouraging the rapid
economic growth that was soon to begin; politically it
was at best conservative and at worst reactionary. The
economic provisions will be examined first.
The fiscal provision most important to the im
mediate picture was the return of excise taxes on
products produced in the Islands to the local treasury
in the. form of federal matching funds. The only limita
tion, on the amount rebated was that it not exceed the
total tax revenue collected locally by the Virgin
Islands government.4 These amounts were substantial and
even by the late 1950's amounted to around half the
total revenues collected ($3,467,361 out of $7,628,750
in 1958, for example). Almost the entire rebate con
sisted of Federal taxes on rum produced in the Virgins
and exported to the mainland.
^0. Oldman and M. Taylor, "Tax Incentives for Economic Growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands," Caribbean Studies. Vol. 10, No. 3, October 1970, p. 185.
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Another provision which became progressively more
important was Section 29(d). The section read, "...all
articles...which do not contain foreign materials to the
value of more than 50 per centum of their total value...
coming into the United States...shall be admitted free of
duty."5 This section became the basis for two significant
industries - watch assembly and textile treating - when it
became obvious that here was a new way to avoid high U.S.
tariffs.
The revised law continued the practice of returning
locally collected income taxes and customs duties to the
local treasury. Thus, these provisions were not new and
neither of them were immediately significant. When in
comes began to rise rapidly towards the middle and late
1950's, the expanding tax base combined with the progres
sive rate structure soon began to generate large and sky
rocketing revenues. Table 1 in the appendix shows how
quickly the income tax in particular expanded. All these
^United States Statutes at Large, 1954. "An Act to Revise the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of the United States." Vol. 68, Part I, "Public Laws and Reorganization Plans." Washington : Government Printing Office, 1955, p. 509.
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provisions, with the exception of the return of excises
which was immediately important and then declined as
other sources grew more rapidly, became progressively
more significant generators of revenue as the Virgin
Island economy expanded in the 1950's and took off in the
I960's.
Politically, the Revised Organic Act was a great
disappointment to progressive Virgin Islanders. In his
analysis of it Lewis went so far as to say, " For if 1936
was the Virgin Islands Magna Charta, 1954 was hardly the
revolution. It was, rather, the counterrevolution.
It is true that two of the demands of the Islanders, a
single legislature and a single treasury, were granted,
but those were hollow victories since there was no
augmentation of legislative power. On the contrary,
legislative power shrank. Section 6(e) set the salaries
and per diems for members of the legislature, a preroga
tive they had exercised themselves under the 1936 Act.
Section 11 gave the governor the power to appoint various
important officials without legislative consent, while
^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput. p. 105.
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Section 16 granted him broad power to reorganize all
government departments unilaterally. Another blow at
autonomy was Section 17 which authorized creation of the
post of government comptroller. This individual, to be
appointed directly by the Secretary of the Interior, was
a Federal watchdog over all the financial affairs of the
Islands, He could audit all local government accounts,
certify all local revenues, subpoena witnesses to testify
under oath, and submit annual reports on all financial
operations of the local government directly to Interior.
His independence was complete, "The office of the govern
ment comptroller shall be under the general supervision
of the Secretary of the Interior, but shall not be a
part of any executive department in the government of the
Virgin Islands."7 The governor's other powers, such as
the item veto, were not altered. The whole new Act
infuriated the local politicians but their protests were
disregarded. Thus, the Revised Organic Act of 1954 did
nothing to democratize the Virgin Island governmental
structure and left untouched the conflict between a strong
7"'An Act to Revise the Organic Act," p. 505.
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and unresponsive executive and a weak legislature. A
native commentator saw the inherent conflict quite
clearly when he wrote.
In the heart of legislator can be found resent ment in some degree or other, which is a reflec tion of the sentiment of the people for the most part. Every governor is conscious of his almost absolute powers, a part of which is dressed up to appear milder than it actually is; while, on the other hand, every legislator is equally conscious of what the democratic rights of the people ought to be, but which rights are sadly missing. This arrangement of substance and shadow makes it only natural that the appointed governor is looked upon as the personification of all grievances. If the governor is com petent it merely allays the situation for a while, and when he is obviously an incompetent administrator coals are added to the fire.8
All in all, the 1954 Revised Organic Act helped set the
stage for the rapid economic growth which was soon to
follow but generally represented a retrograde step in the
political evolution of the Islands, a step which has only
been partly remedied by the Elective Governor Law of 1968.
B. Economic Evolution to 1961
Mass tourism, which has been the motor of most
socio-economic change in the Islands, had its beginnings
°Quoted in Lewis, The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilliput. pp. 106-107.
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in the early 1950's. The early growth of tourism had
little to do with any conscious effort on the part of
the Islanders to promote it. It was mostly the latent
potential of the Virgins coupled with a number of
exogenous changes which led to the growth. The exogenous
events are straightforward. First is the increasing
affluence of post-World War II America and an even
greater increase in travel expenditure. For example,
between 1947 and 1963, U.S. personal disposable income
rose by 137% while travel spending rose 377%.9 Equally
important were changes in travel technology, especially
the advent of fast air travel. In 1946 the trip from New
York to Charlotte Amalie took a full eight hours ; by 1960,
the start of jet service, the time had been cut to 3%
hours.10 Simultaneously, winter Caribbean cruises were
becoming popular, and the good harbor of Charlotte Amalie
made it a natural stopping point. Another unanticipated
9Martin G. Orlins. The Impact of Tourism on the Virgin Islands of the United States (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1969), p. 89.
^°Ibid.. p. 90.
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benefit came from the Virgin's proximity to Puerto Rico.
Being only about twenty minutes by air from San Juan and
offering a completely different atmosphere and freeport
shopping, it was natural for vacationers in Puerto Rico,
and this included numbers of Puerto Ricans, to spend some
time in the Virgin Islands. By the late 1950's other
traditional Caribbean resorts, particularly Cuba, Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, were in rapid decline and
substantial numbers of travelers who had previously gone
to these resorts were coming to the Virgins. These
reasons are fairly specific. Probably the most important
general one was a change in American travel habits.
Leisure, particularly in the form of paid holidays, was
increasing in the post-War era. This, coupled with a
general trend toward more overseas travel by Americans
(435,000 in 1947 versus 2,623,000 in 1965) and a growth
in "sun and surf" psychology among winter vacationers,
was the basic change which turned the Vrigins from sun
drenched, romantic and sleepy islands to sun-drenched,
romantic and bustling tourist meccas.
There were other, minor reasons. In the early 1950's
there were few freeports in the Caribbean - the Virgins are
not actually a freeport; there is a 6% ad valorem duty
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on all imports - but the cheap luxury goods of Charlotte
Amalie were quite attractive. The Islands also experi
mented with "easy" (six weeks residence) divorce during
the late 1940's and early 1950's which brought a fairly
large number of "tourists" down. The absolute numbers were
small, between two and three hundred a year, but on such a
small economic base and with the relatively long stay the
impact was noticeable.H Also important were the waiving
of twenty-four hour out-of-country regulations for customs
exemptions which enabled people to make quick shopping
trips to Charlotte Amalie from San Juan for a single day.
There was also the provision of a $200 exemption for goods
bought in the Islands when the exemption for goods bought
elsewhere was changed to $100, but these two favorable
regulations came somewhat later. The conjunction of
these many factors made the Virgins a "natural" for
rapid tourist development which soon followed and was
helped along later by an often aggressive publicity
campaign on the part of the government. A glance at the
accompanying table (Table 8) shows the extraordinary
growth which occurred in both air and cruise ship tourism.
lllbid.. po 87.
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TABLE 8
TOURIST ARRIVALS IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
Cruise Ship Cruise Ship Air Air Passengers Passengers Arrivals Arrivals Years St. Thomas St. Croix St. Thomas St. Croix
1969-1970 230,300 20,784 401,624 237,883 1968-1969 195,183 18,358 451,907 209,092 1967-1968A 165,381 648,137 1966-1967 133,357 516,295 1965-1966 117,659 436,775 1964-1965 109,341 356,371 1963-1964 110,625 285,610 1962-1963 64,239 215,809 1961-1962 57,799 187,712 1960-1961 57,000 145,100 1959-1960 49,700 124,400 1958-1959 37,000 107,400 1957-1958 35,420 85,800 1956-1957 22,035 76,200 1955-1956 18,500 63,000 1954-1955 16,000 54,864
^Until 1969, arrivals were not differentiated by Island.
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TABLE 8"-C o n tin u e d
Other Other Total Total Arrivals Arrivals Tourist Tourist St. Thomas St. Croix Arrivals Expenditures
149,111 30,000 1,069,702 $107,006,745 133,975 23,000 1,031,515 112,268,245 813,518 100,894,303 649,655 75,358,860 554,434 59,456,295 465,712 54,014,852 396,235 48,158,074 280,048 41,070,000 245,511 35,165,000 203;100 25,817,000 174,100 24,780,000 144,400 21,738,000 121,220 16,070,000 98,235 13,170,000 81,500 11,645,988 70,864 9,174,162
1970 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970), p. 149; 1968 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970), p. 114.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 241
The trend visible from the tourism statistics,
and others soon to be discussed, is illustrative of a
general dialectical process, the founding of qualitative
change on gradual quantitative change. Here the change is
from the agricultural-commercial economy of the early
1950's to the tourist-industrial one of the 1960's. We
see the growth of tourism and some light manufacturing
in a basically agricultural-commercial economy in the
early part of the decade to the declining agriculture
and rapidly changing commercial sector in a tourism
dominated economy of the early I960's, and finally the
complete elimination of agriculture and complete trans
formation of commerce to tourism and artificially
encouraged light - and some heavy - industry by 1970.
In this chapter on the 1954 to 1961 years much of the
trend first becomes visible and the beginnings of it
will be traced out here.
The census data comparing 1950 with 1960 illustrate
this evolution in the economy. Tables 9 and 10 give the
numbers and percentages of people employed in each major
industry and practicing each occupation. What is im
mediately obvious is that the traditional occupations of
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Virgin Islanders declined considerably over these years.
The figures on agriculture are arresting. Here the drop
was from 1,661 persons (20.1% of the total) to 610 persons
(5.6%) in ten years. These numbers somewhat overstate
the decline in the importance of agriculture in the
economy, however. Table 3 shows that over the decade
the total number of farms on St. Croix fell by less than
two hundred and the actual cropland harvested - not
shown on the table - fell only slightly (from 4,763 to
4,053 acres). Consequently, what decline there was
took place largely among small farmers so that the em
ployment effects were greater than the effects on land
in farms or farm production. The concentration in
ownership of the increasingly valuable St. Croix land
continued.
Also on the decline were domestic servants whose
numbers remained fairly constant but whose percentage of
a growing labor force dropped significantly, A progres
sive transfer out of domestic service for native women was
also beginning. This was due almost entirely to increased
employment opportunities in other sectors, for by 1960 a
labor shortage had begun and significant numbers of alien
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OCCUPATIONS OF EMPLOYED PERSONS 1950 AND 1960
1950 1960
Percent Percent Number of Total^ Number of Tota!
Total 8,269 100.0 10,845 100.0
Professional, Technical, & Kindred 601 7.3 897 8.3
Managers & Administrators 612 7.4 1,118 10.3
Clerical & Sales 1,000 12.1 1,864 17.2
Craftsmen, etc. 1,119 13.5 1,427 13.2
Laborers 961 11.6 1,392 12.8
Service Workers 1,293 15.6 1,526 14.1
Farmers & Farm Laborers 1,361 16.5 354 3.3
Private Household 860 10.4 791 7.3
Other 462 5.6 1,476 13.6
Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Table 24; U.S. Census of Population: 1950. Table 67.
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TABLE 10
INDUSTRY OF EMPLOYED PERSONS 1950 AND 1960
1950 1960
Percent Percent Number of Total^ Number of Total
Total 8,269 100.0 10,845 100.0
Agriculture 1,661 20.1 610 5.6
Construction 939 11.4 1,361 12.6
Manufacturing 464 5.6 870 8.0
Transportation 427 5.2 654 6.0
Retail Trade 1,040 12.6 1,744 16.1
Private Household 976 11.8 978 9.0
Service 1,067 12.9 2,243 20.7 Public Administration 803 9.7 1,113 10.3
Other 892 10,8 1,272 11.7
Percent may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 25; U.S. Census of Population: 1950. Table 68.
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West Indians were being imported to fill menial positions.
Thus, although there are figures only for later years, by
1960 there were fewer native women working as domestics
than ever before and by the middle 1960's the field was
almost completely dominated by these imported women
workers. The figures for transportation, trade and
construction reflect increases occasioned by the growth
of tourism - taxis, airline and pleasure-boat workers,
salespeople, and hotel and vacation home building workers
and the like. The occupation data also reflect the
transition to a more tourist-oriented economy with
professionals, managers, clerks, transport workers and
salespeople registering gains. Numbers of service
workers rose by 233, which is a greater absolute increase
than, say, transport workers, but starting from a
relatively large base, their percentage of all occupations
fell. Tourism itself grew substantially. The 1954-1961
period saw increases of a little less than three times in
total expenditures and about the same rate of increase in
air and cruise-ship passengers. (See Table 8.) Finally,
population itself began to reflect the returning
prosperity. The 5,434 increase between 1950 and 1960
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(Table 2 in the appendix gives population data from 1773
to 1970) was the largest in 150 years. Particularly note
worthy is that 2,428 of that increase were whites - a full
44.7 percent - raising their proportion of the total popu
lation from 11.0 to 16.7 percent and thereby demonstrating
the increasing desirability of the Virgin Islands among
both business and retirement-minded continentals.
The 1950's saw a considerable rise in wages.
Table 11 compares the growth of hourly wages in factory
employment for the Virgin Islands and the Mainland U.S.
TABLE 11
WAGES IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS AND THE U.S. MAINLAND, 1950 - 1960
Virgin Islands United States
1960 $ .91 $ 2.29 1959 .87 2.24 1958 .81 2.12 1957 .71 2.07 1956 .61 1.97 1955 .55 1.87 1954 .50 1.81 1953 .49 1.77 1952 .45 1.65 1951 .42 1.59 1950 .41 1.45
Source: D.D. Creque, Planning A Balanced Economic Develop ment Program for Small Business in the U.S. Virgin Islands (Charlotte Amalie: Department of Commerce (V.I. Government), 1963), p. 116.
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Factory wages rose by 122 percent in the Virgin Islands
and 58 percent on the mainland. This was, of course, good
performance. The rate of increase in the Islands was not
great enough to narrow the absolute gap, however, which
rose from $1.04 to $1.38. Also notable was the accelera
tion of growth during the second half of the decade which
is consistent with the trends described here. During the
first six years of the period. Virgin Islands wages rose
$.14 while in the second half they rose $.36.
The tourist development sketched above took place
mostly on St. Thomas. At this time St. Croix had no port
facilities for cruise ships and air service to that island
was inadequate. Hotel facilities were also better on St.
Thomas. Consequently, the economic story on St. Croix
still revolved around agriculture, both public and private.
As the 1950's progressed, VICORP began to find
itself in an increasingly awkward position. To begin with,
VICORP was consistently losing money, substantial losses
which often totalled more than half a million dollars a
year. There was considerable controversy over exactly
why these losses occurred, but it suffices here that the
losses greatly disturbed the Committee on Government
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Operations of the U.S. House of Representatives, so much so
that the Committee held full hearings on VICORP in 1957.
A number of interesting facts turned up. The general up
swing in economic activity had enabled the Crucian farm
laborer to manifest his traditional dislike of his occupa
tion in the simplest way - he quit. Consequently, by 1957
almost all VICORP's cane cutters were imported. As Rep.
Chudoff put it with considerable astonishment, "...we are
actually using the sugar plantation to give British
Virgin Islanders a place to work."12 ^his change in
employment patterns did not apply to the office and mill
staff which remained mostly native and very overstaffed.
This change in VICORP's labor force was a symptom of the
last gasp of the Crucian agricultural economy. Examina
tion of the occupational structure of the Island illus
trates the decline. In 1950 there were considerably more
than twice as many people employed in agriculture than in
any other industry, 1,376 versus 575 for personal
U.S. Congress. House Committee on Government Operations, Activities of the Virgin Islands Government and the Virgin Islands Corporation. Hearings, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1957), p. 497.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 249
services, the nearest competitor (see Table 12). By 1960
construction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade,
personal service and professional service each had more
workers than agriculture. In 1950 there were more than
twice as many farm laborers and foremen as any other
occupation except craftsmen and kindred workers (800
laborers versus 442 craftsmen and kindred). By 1960
non-farm laborers, service workers, operatives, craftsmen
and kindred, clerical, managers and professional workers
each outnumbered farm laborers and foremen. These shifts
in the labor force seem quite overwhelming, but looked at
from another angle there was still a considerable agri
cultural presence by 1960. Table 3 shows that the amount
of land actually planted in cane decreased only a little
and the harvest more than doubled between 1950 and 1960.
Thus, the gradual shifting away from agriculture was
being felt throughout the 1950's and was transforming the
economic structure of St. Croix into a tourist-based
economy more and more resembling St. Thomas. While this
trend was obvious and growing during the 1950's, it had
not yet reached full fruition. That had to await the
decisive events of the I960's.
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MAJOR INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS; NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS ST. CROIX, 1950 AND 1960
Industries 1950 1960
Agriculture 1,376 463 Construction 317 639 Manufacturing 309 493 Trade 402 619 Personal Services 575 815 Professional Services 344 534 Public Administration 221 439
Occupations 1950 1960
Professional, Technical & Kindred 264 382 Farmers & Farm Managers 306 91 Managers & Administrators 155 414 Clerical & Kindred 217 414 Sales 140 219 Craftsmen & Kindred 442 643 Operatives & Kindred 394 448 Private Household 383 284 Services Except Private Household 249 601 Farm Laborers & Foremen 800 303 Other Laborers 383 750
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Table 25; U.S. Census of Population: 1950. Table 68.
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The adaptation of VICORP to the needs of the
planters also proceeded apace. As Norman Skeoch, then
president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, said at
the 1957 hearings, "The chamber feels very strongly that..
VICORP is a vital organization in St. Croix...There has
also been a suggestion that VICORP be turned over to the
local government. Well, I do not think I need to belabor
that point. The local government has not done too
wonderful a job in running itself much less trying to
take VICORP o v e r ."13 Skeoch and his friends liked things
just the way they were. The same investigation brought
out that VICORP paid a very high price to the independent
growers for their cane. When asked why the corporation
persisted in this practice, the reply was that under the
Department of Agriculture sugar program, VICORP needed
to present a detailed case to that department before
receiving permission to lower the p r i c e . 14 a rather
unconvincing bit of bureaucratic buck-passing. As Lewis
summed up this period of VICORP's history.
^^Ibid., p. 500.
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A 1954 report estimated that some 40 per cent of the land in the islands was still owned by twelve individuals or firms, divided into special groups, indifferent heirs of old landed barons, and individuals who did not depend on income from their estates. Nor was the Virgin Islands Corporation scheme, ...any real challenge to this situation for it was run on private enterprize rather than on public service principles, with the result that the large property owners who wanted Congress to sell it to private capital were not in any sense endangered by its cooperative f a c a d e . 15
Two other programs only mentioned here since their
effects were not felt until the following decade were the
tax incentive program and the exemption from U.S. coastal
shipping laws. The latter, passed by Congress in 1942,
removed the requirement that a foreign flag ship call at
a foreign port between stops at United States ports. The ■
former provided a package of tax exemptions and subsidies
designed to attract off-island investment. Taken
together these two programs were to be crucial in
attracting a rather unusual set of industries to the
Islands.
The political process during these years was also
transitional. The types of executive-legislative con
flicts already described proceeded as always, but given
l^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 116.
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the conditions of the Revised Organic Act and the
generally conservative attitudes of the two Republican
governors who ruled for most of the period (1955 to 1961)
there was no real break with the past in either theory
or practice. The politics of the I960's are much more
interesting and significant and so political development
during that decade is treated in greater detail.
This point, 1961, is appropriate for a stop-action
analysis. The reason for pausing is to show how the pre
conditions for rapid growth had been achieved and show
by comparison with earlier years why the Virgin Islands
were now a society on the verge of record-breaking
economic growth and rapid social change.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER VII
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IN 1961: STATE OF THE SOCIETY
A. Stop-ActIon Analysis
The economic picture in 1961 is considerably more
detailed than in previous years simply because there is a
great deal more statistical information available. This
availability is particularly lucky because a good statis
tical base is necessary as a benchmark for the measurement
of the changes in the I960's.
First of all comes population. As pointed out
earlier, the 1950's registered the first really signifi
cant gain - slightly over 20 percent - in 150 years (see
Table 13). The interesting fact that almost half the
increase was in the white population was undoubtedly due
mostly to immigration of continentals. Table 13 breaks
down the population and its changes in the two islands.
By far the most striking change is the growth of the white
population on St. Croix. The nximber of whites more than
tripled from 681 in 1950 to 2,353 in 1960, a 245 percent
254
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TABLE 13
POPULATION BY ISLAND AND BY RACE, 1930-1960
1960 1950 1940 1930
St. Croix Total 14,973 12,103 12,902 11,413 Negro 7,825 7,573 9,381 9,592 Percent Negro 52.3 62.6 72.7 84.0 Negro Increase^ 252 -1,808 -211 Percent Negro Increase 3.3 -19.3 -2.2 White 2,353 681 438 414 Percent White 15.7 5.6 3.4 3.6 White Increase 1,672 243 24 Percent White Increase 245.5 55.5 5.8 Mixed 4,795 3,849 3,083 1,386 Percent Mixed 32.0 31.8 23.9 12.1 Mixed Increase 946 766 1,697 Percent Mixed Increase 24.6 24.9 122.4
St. Thomas Total 16,201 13,813 11,265 9,834 Negro 11,995 10,278 7,245 6,998 Percent Negro 74.0 74.4 64.3 71.2 Negro Increase 1,717 3,033 247 Percent Negro Increase 16.7 41.9 3.5 White 2,923 2,241 1,785 1,578 Percent White 18.0 16.2 15.9 16.1 White Increase 682 456 207 Percent White Increase 30.4 25.6 13.1 Mixed 1,283 1,294 2,235 1,239 Percent Mixed 7.9 9.3 19.8 12.6 Mixed Increase -11 -941 996 Percent Mixed Increase -0.9 -42.1 80.3
^Increase from previous Census.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 29; U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 71______Sixteenth Census of the United States : 1940, Table 9; Fifteenth Census of the United States : 1930 Table 16.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 256
increase. Table 13 also shows that population rose by
similar amounts on St. Thomas and St. Croix. The rise
was a continuation of the trend of 1940-1950 for St.
Thomas, but was a complete change for St. Croix which
had lost population during the previous ten years. By
1960 St. Thomas had more people than at any time in her
history. Although St. Croix's population was increasing
fast - 23.7 percent between 1950 and 1960 of which the
great majority were probably in the late 1950's - she
was still short of the peak of 1796 by around 8,000
souls.
Incomes had risen considerably over their 1950
level by the end of the decade. In 1950 the median in
come had been $460 and had reached $1,175 by 1960 (see
Table 14). Distribution problems were very severe, how
ever. Table 15 shows cumulative distributions for both
years derived from Census data. The conclusion from these
data is obvious; despite the rapid growth of incomes, the
distribution of income had not changed much. In 1950 the
richest 2.0 percent of earners received 21.9 percent of the
income while in 1960 2.2 percent got 17.3 percent of the
income. As for the poorest Virgin Islanders, the 36.7
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TABLE 14
INCOME OF PERSONS, 1949 AND 1959
1949 1959 1959 1959 Total Total Negro White
Total Reporting 9,821 13,431 8,648 2,722
Less than $500 5,243 3,444 2,692 339 $500-999 2,237 2,551 1,893 342 $1,000-1,999 1,429 3,403 2,206 592 $2,000-2,999 418 1,664 1,001 346 $3,000-3,999 194 928 471 271 $4,000-4,999 98 429 160 183 $5,000-9,999 148 710 189 408 $10,000 & Over 54 302 36 241
Median $ 460 $1,175 $ 921 $2,183
Percentage Distribution
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Less than $500 53.4 25.6 31.1 12.5 $500-999 22.8 . 19.0 21.9 12.6 $1,000-1,999 14.6 25.3 25.5 21.7 $2,000-2,999 4.2 12.4 11.6 12.7 $3,000-3,999 2.0 6.9 5.4 10.0 $4,000-4,999 1.0 3.2 1.9 6.7 $5,000-9,999 1.5 5.3 2.2 15.0 $10,000 & Over 0.5 2.2 0.4 8.9
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 27; U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 70.
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TABLE 15
CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME OF PERSONS 1949 AND 1959
1949 1959
Cumulative Cumulative Cumulative Cumulative Percentage Percentage Percentage Percentage Income of Total of Total of Total of Total Classes Persons Income Persons Income
Less than $300 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
$300-499 63.3 94.1 85.9 98.9
$500-999 46.6 86.5 74.3 96.5
$1,000-1,999 23.8 68.6 55.3 90.1
$2,000-2,999 9.2 45.9 30.0 71.3
$3,000-3,999 5.0 34.4 17.6 56.0
$4,000-4,999 3.0 26.9 10.7 43.7
$5,000-9,999 2.0 21.9 7.5 36.3
$10,000 and Over 0.5 9.3 2.2 17.3
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 70; U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 27.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 259
percent of the people receiving the lowest incomes got
5.9 percent of the total in 1950, and in 1960 the poorest
25.7 percent of the earners took home 4.5 percent of
total income. Although the pie had grown, it was sliced
in the same old way. The 1960 Census also collected family
and unrelated individual income figures by race for the
first time. These also showed a sorry state of distribu
tion with the white median at $3,370 and the black median
at $1,260.
There is really no way to get a complete and
accurate picture of landholdings in the Virgin Islands.
The lack of data has forced this writer to rely on cer
tain closely related measurements to give, hopefully, a
fairly good indication of landholding patterns. The
statistics on farm size and tenure are useful here. The
total area of St. Croix is 51,200 acres and in 1960 the
amount of land in farms on that island was 34,376 or 67.1
percent of the total area. As Table 3 shows, 14 farms of
500 acres or more comprised 68.9 percent of the latter
total or 23,702 acres. Including the next smaller
category of farms, we obtain 23 farms with 78.2 percent
of all land in farms or 26,898 acres. Looked at this way,
23 farms covered 52.5 percent of the total area of St.
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Croix. On St. Thomas, an island basically unsuited to
agriculture as the reader will recall, 6,317 acres or
30.8 percent of the total area was in farms in 1960. Out
of this total, 4,101 (64.5%) were in units of more than
250 acres. There were only seven such units.1 Thus,
20 percent of the total area of St. Thomas was held in
seven farms.
With the cooperation of the local authorities, the
author was able to examine the property tax rolls of the
two islands. Such records are kept in value terms so it
was possible to derive some measure of landholdings by
value. The first step was to determine how much of the
land was held in large parcels, a large parcel being
defined as an assessed value of at least $10,000. In St.
Thomas $4,066,956 out of approximately $15,750,000 or
25.8 percent was held in large parcels. The survey for
St. Croix showed that $5,415,311 out of $14,075,000 in
assessed land values (38.5%) was being held the same way.
To get at ownership patterns, the holdings on St. Croix
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1964 United States Census of Agriculture, Vol. I, pt. 53, Virgin Islands of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1967), Table 9.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 261
were subdivided by owner and then totalled. Using
$100,000 to define a base large family holding, there
were 11 families (owners with the same surnames which
the author knew to be definitely or probably related) and
two corporations which held more than $100,000 worth of
land in parcels assessed at $10,000 or more apiece. All
values are understated here since the assessment was only
60 percent of the assessor's opinion of true value. These
families included the Armstrongs, Canadays, Flemings,
Merwins, Nelthropps, Pittersens and Skeoches; all members
of the "royal family" group listed earlier. These
super-large holdings came to slightly more than
$2,875,000 or more than 20 percent of all land values.
For St. Thomas the picture was quite similar. Here, nine
families and four corporations - one of them the old
Danish West India Company - held a total of $3,022,000 in
blocs totalling over $100,000 in assessed value made up
of individual parcels assessed at $10,000 or more. This
was 19.1 percent of all assessed land values. These nine
families included the Barbels, Boschultes, Creques,
Hartmans, Lockharts, QueteIs and Paiewonskys. The largest
single landholder, Henry Reichold, with large parcels
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assessed at $533,612 in 1960, was a continental head of a
large stateside chemical company. His total property
holdings in large parcels were by far the greatest in the
Virgin Islands in that year and totalled $1,058,744 in
assessments on land and improvements. It should be noted
that these measurements are certainly underestimates of
the amount of land held by these families. Due to un
avoidable time and data collection problems, this writer
was not able to make a complete account of all land
holdings of these wealthy families, but had to content
himself with recording only those parcels of land worth at
least $10,000 (assessed value). Thus, all small holdings
of these families and corporations went unrecorded. This
is probably not important for the corporations as they
tend to hold only large pieces of land, but it definitely
understates the holdings of the families, especially if
they are natives as most of them are. Thus, this author's
estimates should be taken as being very conservative as
the real concentrations were undoubtedly higher.
By 1961 tourism was a rapidly growing and more
institutionalized source of economic growth. The growth
of the 1950's had meant the gradual expansion of tourist
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facilities such as air transport and hotel accommodations.
Hotels and guest houses were eligible for local tax exemp
tions, and by 1961 there were 19 tax-exempt hotels and
guest houses in operation.2 The volume of tourist
visitors had jumped 300 percent from 1954, and tourist
expenditures had risen slightly more (see Table 8).
As can be seen in Table 16, employment patterns
had also evolved considerably. The emphasis was more
toward the sorts of white collar employment one would
expect in a more advanced economy. Table 17, which
follows, was released to this author with the kind
permission of officials of the Virgin Islands Employment
Security Agency; it gives a more realistic picture since
it was constructed specifically for the Virgin Islands.
Consequently, some of the ambiguities inherent in trying
to apply census criteria to this economically atypical
area are avoided. The data are for 1962 and record
persons covered by unemployment insurance (thus the low
1961 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1961), p. 11.
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TABLE 16
OCCUPATIONS OF EMPLOYED PERSONS, 1950 AND I9 6 0
1950 1960
% of % of Number Total^ Number Total
TOTAL 8,269 100.0 10,845 100.0
Professional, Technical 601 7.3 897 '8.3 & Kindred
Managers & Administrators 612 7.4 1,118 10.3
Clerical & Sales 1,000 12.1 1,864 17.1
Craftsmen, etc. 1,119 13.5 1,427 13.2
Laborers 961 11.6 1,392 12.8
Service Workers 1,293 15.6 1,526 14.1
Farmers & Farm Laborers 1,361 16.6 354 3.3
Private Household Workers 860 10.4 791 7.3
Other 462 5.6 1,476 13.6
^Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
Sources: U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 24; U.S. Census of Population: 1950. Table 67.
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TABLE 17
COVERED EMPLOYMENT, DECEMBER 1962
7o of Total
100.0
Agriculture 165 1.4
Construction 1,176 9.7 Building Contractors 884 Contractors Except Building 161 Special Trade Contractors 131
Manufacturing 1,196 9.9 Food Products 245 Textiles 232 Chemicals 32 Stone, Clay, Glass 64 Clocks & Watches 238
Transportation 1,376 11.3 Local Passenger 72 Water 623 Air 97 Services 178
Communications 234 1.9
Wholesale Trade 244 2.0
Retail Trade 2,282 18.8 Lumber & Hardware 177 General Merchandise 172 Food 251 Autos & Accessories 151 Furniture & Appliances 110 Shoes & Apparel 281 Eating & Drinking Places 474 Miscellaneous 666
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TABLE 17 — C o n tin u e d
% of Total Total
Financial Services 467 3.9 Banking 180 Real Estate 225
Hotels 1,447 11.9
Personal Service 113 0.9
Auto Repair 105 0.9
Education 67 0.6
Government 3,253 26.8
Source: Supplied to the author by the Virgin Islands Employment Security Agency, St. Thomas.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 267
figures for agriculture and personal services). These
figures show that the largest source of employment was
the government (26.8%), followed by retail trade (18.8%),
hotel employment (11.9%), transportation (11.3%), manu
facturing (9.9%), and construction (9.7%). The other
categories are minor. Thus, the dual pillars of the
Island employment structure, government and tourism,
are already dominant by this date. This is obvious when
we realize that much of the retail trade served the
tourist, much of the transport was dedicated to getting
him from place to place (taxis, boat excursions, rental
cars, airlines), much of the construction was of hotels
and vacation homes (and quite a bit for the local
government), and so forth.
By 1961 a momentous event was taking place
which eluded all the statistics - the rapidly growing
dominance of the newly arrived continental entrepreneur.
More will be said about the process by which the Islands
were, almost literally, bought lock-stock-and-barrel by
white mainland businessmen. For now we need only note
that by 1961 the process was becoming sufficiently obvious
to worry some of the more thoughtful Virgin Islanders.
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Another problem becoming more noticeable by 1961
was what the islanders like to call the "alien problem."
As full employment was reached and surpassed around this
time, a labor shortage developed. The shortage was
especially acute in those jobs most abhorent to the
natives, menial labor and personal service. Consequently,
under pressure from both the capitalists and the local
government (the labor unions opposed it) a program for
the importation of temporary alien (read black West
Indian) labor was inaugurated and began to grow rapidly.
A full description of this phenomenon is given in this
and the following chapter. At this point it is enough to
note the interesting and highly unusual fact that both
the bottom - the new aliens filling manual occupations -
and the top - the new continental entrepreneurs - of the
economic pyramid were on the threshold of even faster
growth than the middle (the masses of natives). What
made this augmentation of the extremes even more
significant is that the new people on both ends were
foreigners.
Housing conditions have been wretched for the
masses throughout the history of the Virgins. Although
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there had been some improvement by 1960, including a
large public housing program, conditions were still far
below mainland standards. Appendix Table 3 gives
statistics for 1960. The numbers show almost half the
dwelling units without refrigeration, almost two-thirds
of the units without flush toilets or bathing facilities,
and about 15 percent of all units without any type of
kitchen facilities whatsoever.
By 1961 the revenue structure of the local govern
ment was undergoing extensive modification. Appendix
Table 1 shows local government revenues and expenditures
from 1958 to 1971. The rebated income tax was providing
an exploding source of revenue, having grown to $5,619,721
from a mere $720,314 in 1953. This very high rate of
growth in collections continued throughout the 1960's
even when the absolute increase became much greater -
from $3,000,000 to more than $12,000,000 yearly between
1964 and 1971 versus the yearly $200,000 to $1,200,000
increases between 1953 and 1961. Matching fund contribu
tions, almost entirely made up of rebated federal excise
taxes on rum, were also growing at a good rate as did
property taxes once a more realistic assessment formula
was instituted at the close of the 1950's. The property
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tax rate remained very low. It averaged around 1 percent
of assessed value, which was in turn 60 percent of market
value, and due to the other areas of fast revenue growth
has remained at that level (as of 1972 the statutory rate
was 1.25%). Another significant revenue source was the
returned customs duties on goods imported into the Virgin
Islands. Since almost all "freeport" goods were imported
from Europe and Japan, these customs revenues grew in
proportion to tourism. As pointed out before, the
Islands are not a true freeport as there is a flat
6 percent ad valorem tariff on all imports.
Probably the most significant thing about the
tax picture is most of these taxes would yield rapidly
increasing revenues from the kind of tourist-oriented
growth which was just beginning in earnest. Neglecting
questions of distribution, the income tax would increase
the same no matter what the type of growth, but the gross
receipts, returned customs duties, property taxes, and
matching funds were all more sensitive to increasing,
tourism than, say, production taxes like the old sugar
export tax. And many of these taxes fell more heavily on
the tourists than on the natives, especially the customs
duties and rum excise.
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The structure of government expenditures by 1961
was pretty much what one would expect of any local govern
ment. The exception is the large outlays for the Depart
ment of Health which reflects the state-run medical
service. This has been the traditional way medical
services have been provided in the Virgin Islands from
the Danish period through the Navy and into the present.
The class structure, stagnant for so long, was
beginning to change by 1961. The main changes were taking
place on the ends of the class spectrum, as noted earlier.
The white population was growing quite rapidly, from 11.3
percent of the total in 1950 to 16.7 percent in 1960.
The non-Virgin Island West Indian population was growing
rapidly too, numbering 2,320 in 1950 (8.7% of the total)
and 4,122 in 1960 (12.8% of the total).^ These are
probably undercounts, especially by 1960 because the
ambiguous legal status of the "bonded alien" workers
made them reluctant to cooperate with any government
activities or inquiries they could possibly avoid.
%.S. Bureau of the Cen&us, U.S. Census of Popula tion: 1960. Vol. I, Characteristics of the Population. Parts 54-57, Outlying Areas. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1963, Table 7; U.S. Census of Population: 1950, Table 61.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 272
Although there is no hard evidence, there is general agree
ment among observers that these increases were in the
manual labor areas for the West Indians and the entre-
preneural strata for the continentals.
Gradual economic improvement was evident among the
native population. Although the size of the government
payroll was about the same as in 1950, 2,609 in that year
versus 2,337 in 1960, natives were steadily rising to
positions of greater responsibility and power. Their wages
improved too, once the discriminatory "local schedule" of
lower native salaries was abolished in the early 1950's.4
During the 1950's there had also been considerable movement
out of agriculture and domestic service, the lowest paid
occupations, and into more remunerative fields such as con
struction, trade, transport and manufacturing. The move
ment of natives out of these low-paying fields is greater
than the statistics suggest since many of their places were
being filled by aliens. The most radical upgrading of
the native masses was yet to take place, however. When it
came it took the extraordinary form of mass hiring by the
^V.A. Hill, Sr., Rise to Recognition (Private Printing, 1971), pp. 122-123.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. local government, leaving incredibly few natives in all
but some specialized and high status occupations such as
taxi-driving and some retail sales.
The old native ruling class still set the social
tone. Referring to this period, Gladwin described the
class separatism of the Crucian "royal families" as,
"...the silken screen, harder to break through than the
Berlin Wall, behind which the old families lived in
splendid isolation."5 The same separatism was true of
the mulatto elite on St. Thomas. In her novel about the
race relations of this period, Helen Follett, a continental,
recounts her greeting on being introduced to the parents
of a mulatto student she had taught in a stateside college.
"Even as they rose, gave their daughter a hug, and said a
coldly polite 'Good evening' to me, I felt their words
carried little welcome. I was about to compliment them
on their moonlit flower garden...but was checked by their
aloofness. No doubt about it, I was the center of an
awkward situation."^ However, the traditional elites
%llis Gladwin, Living in the Caribbean (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1970), p. 17.
^Helen Follett, Stick of Fire (New York: Vantage Press, 1956), p. 41.
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were declining in actual influence. The reasons are
simple and quite consistent with what one would expect
from the hypotheses of historical materialism. The
first diminution in the elites' power came from the
exercise of the vote by the masses after 1936. As we
have already seen, this was by no means a social revolu
tion and what might possibly have been one was soon
disowned by the liberal welfare state politics of the new
political groups. The local ruling class remained un
challenged economically and even succeeded in preserving
some of its direct political power on St. Croix. Although
their direct political power was weakened, their indirect
power remained dominant through close relations with the
local government and the taking over of many important
administrative positions. Also, few if any of the
continental occupants of high posts had any intention of
pursuing the kinds of policies which would have resulted
in significant alterations in the class structure, since
their ideologies ranged from reactionary to corporate
liberal.
This was not all obvious at the time. The
Progressive Guide and other liberal groups were often
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labelled radical or even communist. But the advantage of
hindsight demonstrates the exceedingly moderate nature of
their substantive politics, even though - and this is a
general West Indian trait - the style was often rather
militant. The 1954 Revised Organic Act led to no great
changes in Virgin Island politics, so we must look else
where for the cause of the "rapidly declining" power of
the local elite. The reason is not far to seek; it was
the change in the mode of production which was taking
place at greater and greater speed. The rise of tourism
undercut the power of the old ruling class in two ways.
First was the influx of contintental entrepreneurs who
set up new businesses. These included both wealthy
individuals and giant American corporations. Second
was the buying out of many existing enterprises and
landholdings by various continental interests. Ward
Canaday was a very big fish in the small pond of St.
Croix, but the Rockefeller interests who bought him out
in the 1960's are whales in the ocean of American corporate
capitalism. These two processes will be examined in more
detail later, but they had already become common by 1961
and were to become quite overwhelming during the I960's,
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the years this writer calls "Development Decade." Thus,
the waning of local elite power corresponds much more
closely to economic movements than it does to political
movements. The analysis of the dynamic trends of
Development Decade will show the way this, for now only
asserted, change took place.
The Puerto Rican immigrants, mostly on St. Croix,
are a group which has been ignored up to this point. Many
of them came to the Virgins as cane workers for VICO in
the 1930's, most from the even more depressed island of
Vieques. Being so different from the Crucians - the great
majority still live on St. Croix - in language, religion,
family structure, race and culture, and at the same time
having a similar mix of labor skills one would expect
there to have been considerable conflict. Conflict there
was, but it was minor from the beginning and through the
last four decades or so the Puerto Ricans have integrated
themselves quite smoothly into Crucian society.7
The group is large, possibly 25 percent of the
total population of the Islands, with the total on St.
7q .K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 209.
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Croix probably 35-45 percent. The true Puerto Rican
population is impossible to measure since the Census
only lists those people b o m in Puerto Rico. 8 This is
totally inadequate since the Puerto Rican community is so
long-established. In any case, the Puerto Ricans are
quite diverse occupationally, the only areas where they
are underrepresented are the professions. One measure
of their integration is the significant number on the
Crucian police f o r c e . 9 Intermarriage with the natives
is not uncommon and Spanish is not looked down upon;
indeed, many of the younger Crucians have become bilingual.
Probably the most important indication of successful
integration of this group is their almost total lack of
ethnic politics. In the early years when conflicts were
fairly common there was a certain amount of bloc voting
and other exclusive activities, but since then there has
not even remotely been what one could call a "Puerto
Rican" vote. There is even relatively little self
segregation in housing. All this speaks rather well for
^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 207.
^Ibid., p. 208.
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the tolerance of both groups. To some extent the lack of
resentment against Puerto Ricans may be because there are
two more "dangerous" groups to resent - the continentals
and the aliens ; the former for their economic power and
racism and the latter for their poverty and supposed
contributions to the Islands' social problems. This
somewhat cynical view was suggested by a number of
Virgin Islanders interviewed by this writer, but there is
no way to determine its truth.
All the above makes the Puerto Rican group
basically uninteresting for the purposes of this study.
A comparative study of the Puerto Rican experience in
St. Croix and New York City would be fascinating and
useful, but there is no place for that inquiry here.
The Puerto Ricans form no distinct class grouping like
the aliens, have no distinct politics, are not distinguished
from other islanders economically, have little conflict
over language, schooling, race or social customs. In
short they are, with only slight exaggeration, just
Crucians, and it makes much more sense to treat them as
such than to go off on a long and basically unilluminating
analysis of their place and history in the Virgin Islands.
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By 1961 the economic interests of the various
classes were rapidly evolving into their present state.
The interests of the new continental entrepreneurial
class and their few native upper class allies fit in well
with a number of traditional interests and attitudes of
the local ruling class. As with so many Caribbean
colonialists, the continental entrepreneur brought a
get-rich-quick, highly speculative and aggressive
mentality with him to the Islands. This was especially
pronounced among the wealthier types, both individual
and corporate, who saw their activities in the Virgins
as essentially temporary, although a large number of the
smaller business people who came down sincerely wished
to make a complete new start in a new environment. The
speculative attitude blended well with the sharp-witted
commercial outlook of the Islands' merchant group and
generally supported a bias toward maximum development for
private profit in the shortest possible time. After all,
who knew when the tourists would become nostalgic for
Atlantic City, enamored of the Amazon Valley, or ir-
resistably fascinated by the icebergs off the Greenland
coast? Thus, an interest of this group was in laissez
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faire, but laissez faire of a peculiar kind. It really
meant the absence of controls on their private projects
while at the same time supporting a whole raft of govern
ment programs designed to ease, subsidize, and otherwise
facilitate business interests. Specifically, this meant
support for tax holidays, increased customs exemptions,
"section 301," continued exemption from the coastal
shipping laws, and general support for the "close
cooperation" between, or if one prefers somewhat
stronger and less scholarly language, corruption of
local government by business. We should notice, if only
in passing here, that both the Merwin (1958-1961) and
Paiewonsky (1961-1969) administrations were literally
businessman's governments. Both men have extensive
business interests in the Islands. Paiewonsky's is
based on the famous Riise liquor and gift shop complex.
But more important than any specific holding was their
attitude that what was good for business was good for the
Virgin Islands. And this included all business - big or
small, native or continental, service or industrial. Thus,
there was no obstacle to the traditional cooperation
between capitalists and government administrators. On
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the contrary. On the negative side the get-rich-quick
outlook brought many entrepreneurs to oppose planning of
all types such as zoning, conservation, building codes,
and so forth. To this day the local planning department
is held up as a paragon of non-achievement. The new
entrepreneurial class also provided overwhelming support
for what can only be described as the most unjust im
migration and labor system in recent U.S. history, the
"bonded alien" system. This lobby was so effective, in
fact, that the local government was absolutely unwilling
to modify the bonded alien system and its concomitant
abuses, and almost all remedial action in this area has
come from the federal government (Departments of Labor
and Justice) and legal action on behalf of the aliens by
private groups.
The interests of the native masses began to take
on a somewhat schizophrenic character by 1961 which has
since become more and more pronounced. On the one hand,
the natives viewed tourist development, correctly, as the
goose that laid the golden eggs. It was almost solely
responsible for the improvements in living standards which
the masses were experiencing by 1961 and which accelerated
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throughout the decade. On the other hand, tourism
directly caused (and other developments also contributed
to) a number of serious dislocations in native life which
have been a source of considerable conflict. These dis
locations, examined in detail later, fall under the
general heading of "loss of patrimony." This includes
what is perceived as a literal loss of economic control,
loss of traditional perquisites such as free beach rights,
erosion of numerical preponderance, cultural imperialism
and unwanted changes in what are seen as the "good old
ways," and the growth of crime, racism and other social
diseases. The chapter on the 1960’s will explain how
this native-non-native struggle, basically a class
struggle, is expressed largely in cultural terms. It
is not expressed in class terms by local leaders because
the statement of the problem in class terms automatically
suggests solutions which the natives themselves would not
be able or willing to entertain.
The economic interest of the growing alien group
cannot be understood without a description of their
peculiar legal position and this complex explanation is
better left for later. However, the rather simple reasons
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for their immigration to the Virgin Islands can be re
viewed here. The movement of the alien group to the
Islands is in the classic American tradition of semi
voluntary migration to the United States proper; semi
voluntary in the sense that they were not brought for
cibly as were the slaves, but not totally voluntary
because the forces driving them from their homes were
so strong as to make immigration a near necessity. These
forces have included great poverty and chronic unemploy
ment coupled with the practical certainty of no relief.
Probably the most exact parallels would be between the
aliens and the Italians of the Mezzogiomo around the
turn of the century or the Puerto Ricans and Virgin
Islanders who went to New York from 1920 to the 1950's.
There was no political push such as drove the Jews from
Eastern Europe before 1914 and from Nazi Germany after
1933, or the German revolutionaries after 1848. On the
contrary, many of the aliens' home islands had already
become independent, and even those which were still
colonies provided much greater political rights than
attached to "bonded alien" status under the American flag.
Consequently, it was economic pressure which brought the
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aliens to the Virgin Islands and it is economic reward -
often pitifully small by mainland standards - which causes
the great majority to want to remain.
Class and race consciousness were also undergoing
significant change by 1961 under the pressure of economic
polarization and American-style racism. The trends
described here were not nearly dominant in 1961, but they
were visible and the acute observer would have had little
trouble in forecasting their increasing strength. The
traditional class structure still had considerable
residual solidity, and as is usual in cases of rapid
changes in class structure, class attitudes were slower
to change than the structure itself. Thus, the form and
degree of class consciousness described earlier still
existed.
American-style racism was becoming more common for
several reasons. First of all, the continental population,
both tourist and resident, had grown substantially and
they naturally brought American standards of race relations
and classifications with them. Second, a larger number
of young Virgin Islanders were going to the States for
higher education, mostly at black colleges such as Howard,
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Hampton Institute, and Tuskegee and so were exposed to
the American racial scene. And last but not least was
the increasing influence of stateside mass media,
especially radio and television, on the islanders'
collective psyche.
At the same time, the great economic polarization
was also getting underway. The continental entrepre
neurial group along with some of the more perceptive
island ruling class families - white and near-white -
were becoming more and more solidly entrenched on the
commanding heights of the economy. The native masses were
commencing their climb into the petite bourgeoisie, at
this time through construction, trade and service jobs
but soon through government employment. The aliens were
forming a new imported proletariat in tourist services,
construction, domestic service and other menial occupa
tions. These phenomena were leading to an interesting
result which could not have been easily foreseen. Under
the Danes the correlation between class position and skin
color was complex but nonetheless close, being based on a
white and near-white upper class, a mulatto middle class,
and a native black proletariat. With the advent of
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economic polarization and greater influence of mainland
American attitudes on race, the standards of evaluation
changed radically, but the end result - a high correla
tion between race and class - was practically identical.
The continental form of race classification would now see
a "white" upper class; much the same as the old Danish
system except now the upper class was continental, not
native, and truly more Caucasian. The continental would
also now see a "black" working class ; also basically the
same as in the Danish regime except now the black working
class would be increasingly alien. For the middle class
the result is somewhat different. The Danish observer
would be surprised to find such a large number of dark-
skinned natives in the traditional precincts of the
mulatto group (lower government service and petty trade),
although he would notice that the traditional mulatto
group had not been displaced, the blacks being a net
addition. For the continental, well, they would all look
alike to him. However, the general spectrum of class-race
correlates would not be too different in the end. A
white and near-white upper class, setting itself apart
by means of wealth, skin color and culture ; a highly
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exploited black working class with few ties to any other
class (before because of slavery and its legacy, now
because of foreign-ness); and a middle class cut off
from the elite by race and riches and from the working
class by economic position, political influence and
cultural chauvinism (there is no love lost between the
black native and the black alien).
The above analysis is not meant as a literal
description of reality even today when it is much more
in evidence, to say nothing of its being dominant in 1961.
However, this description is of the social structure in
an ideal, or exaggerated form emanating from what were
the most important socio-economic forces shaping the
Virgin Islands in the I960’s. The implications and
details of these movements and forces will be sketched
in the following chapter which deals with the Virgin
Islands during Development Decade. In any case, the
implications for class and race consciousness are clear.
As in Danish times, a ruling class consciousness stands
for approximately the same things whether it is expressed
in economic or racial terms. It expresses the dominance
of a white economic elite over and above the interests of
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both the black working class and a now much larger black
and mulatto middle class. A working class consciousness
sees the super-exploited nature of its position viz-a-viz
a white elite and the hostility, both economic and cul
tural, of a middle group. The middle class, in its turn,
sees itself oppressed in economic, racial and cultural
terms by the elite and at the same time feels the need to
command deference from the black working class while also
feeling distinctly threatened by that group's numbers,
social aspirations, and potential for violent protest.
Thus, although both the personnel and the evaluative
criteria have drastically changed since the Danish period,
we have a strangely similar reality where class and race
divisions are so similar that no matter if a group's
consciousness is expressed in race or class terms, the
socio-political implications of either expression are
very similar. We will see how this works out in practice
in the next chapter.
This analysis has tried to show that viewing Virgin
Island society in terms of class gives a truer picture
of it than any alternative view for both the recent past
and for the Danish era. Even taking full account of
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the place and nature of race relations in this society, it
seems that these relations are at bottom class-based.
Class analysis enables the links between the base and
superstructure of ideas to be illuminated, and provides a
way to answer a number of questions answerable in no
other way. These included attitudes of the native blacks
to their fellow black West Indians, the types of conflicts
that arise in the society and the reasons for each
group's place in them, and finally the general ideas
current in the society. All these questions and more
are implicit in any serious analysis of the Virgin
Islands' socio-economic development and the chapter to
this point and the following one hopefully demonstrates
the worth of the historical materialist approach in this
case.
The amounts and types of class and race conflict
found in the Virgin Islands by 1961 is somewhat confused
by the class and ideological changes described in the
previous paragraphs. Here again we find the beginnings
of trends which were to become much stronger during the
I960's. On the surface things were calm. In fact, many
people, both black and white, look back on the 1950's as
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a sort of golden age in Virgin Islands race relations. The
major economic and class changes were still in their
infancy. The influx of continentals, both tourists and
residents, had not reached the extraordinarily high
levels of the I960's and so there was less cultural and
racial conflict. The alien population was still relatively
small and whether one believes with many native Virgin
Islanders that this group is responsible for the increases
in crime and delinquency of the I960's or not, the fact is
that both crime and the tensions between natives and aliens
were much lower at the start of the decade. In the
economic sphere, the feeling had not yet become current
that the natives were losing their patrimony to these
other groups, and demand for labor was not yet so high
that natives could afford to antagonize employers with
the assurance that another job was there for the taking.
On the ideological side, militant ideas -
especially "black power" ideas - had not yet become
current in either the U.S. or the Caribbean, and almost
all Islanders still professed the liberal integrationist
position on race. Doubts about the applicability of main
land American culture had not yet arisen. Indeed, the
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Virgins took part enthusiastically in the Great American
Celebration of mainland culture and institutions so
dominant in the 1950's. Thus, no one questioned the
strict modelling of the island educational system on
the continental pattern, even in language instruction
where the complete ignoring of West Indian dialect (often
called "calypso" English in the Virgins) led to serious
and unnecessary learning disabilities for many native
children. Mainland media and cultural and educational
"experts" were welcomed, no matter what their degree of
ignorance of West Indian cultural requirements. There was
very little interest in preserving whatever folk heritage
that still existed. Because of all this, overt conflict
was at a minimum. The economic and class changes going
on beneath the surface would result in increasing conflict
as they rapidly became stronger, however.
The structure and power base of the various
political parties were about the same in 1961 as in 1954.
During the mid-1960's (1963 to 1966) there was to be
sharp fighting over political organization with the
Unity Party taking over the name "Democratic Party" from
the regular organization. This conflict over party labels
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made the usually complicated local politics downright
byzantine, but after all the court battles and propaganda
were over, the actual makeup of the parties and their
power bases were much the same as before.
The relationships among the institutional orders
of society, external relations, theory and practice of the
political parties and coalitions were basically the same
as in 1954. The appointment of Ralph Paiewonsky to the
governorship helped create a strong - some would say
charismatic - leader. What is most significant about the
Paiewonsky administration here is that he was the first
appointed governor who was an integral part of a strong
local party, the Unity Party, and had been active in
liberal politics since the founding of the Progressive
Guide in the 1930's. Consequently, here was the first
opportunity for a strong local party to form a legislative-
executive political machine. This is precisely what
Paiewonsky and Earle B. Ottley, president of the
legislature and the other head of the Unity Party, set
out to do soon after Paiewonsky's appointment.
The methods, used to build up the machine included
most of the familiar techniques of American state and
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local politics including the quick build-up of a patronage
system based on both classified and unclassified government
employment and the astute use of both paid public relations
propaganda staffs and favorable publicity in both the
Island and mainland press. The administration even tried
to set up its own daily newspaper but circulation
suffered from such a close identification with the admin
istration and it soon folded. Paiewonsky tried direct
ii.tervention in legislative elections - a move which had
been tried only once before, unsuccessfully, in 1948.
The Paiewonsky years will be discussed fully in the
following chapter, but it is important to note this
significant difference between the Paiewonsky regime and
its predecessors from the outset.
The ideological themes prevalent in the society
had not changed greatly. The Islands continued in their
general patterns of business values, individualism,
paternalism, and conservatism. The tourist boom,
definitely underway by 1961, naturally brought certain
themes connected with tourism to the fore. The natives
were urged to be "courteous" and "friendly" and much was
said about the difference between "service" and "servitude"
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in an attempt to get the natives to take menial jobs in
the tourist industry and to overlook the rude (in their
terms) behavior of the continental tourists. "Boosting"
under both private and public auspices was becoming more
and more common around touristic themes. The Virgins
were billed as "An American Paradise" (the motto on
license plates), the climate was extolled to the skies
(constant temperatures in the 80's and no rain), the
Danishness (both real and imagined) was played up, and
even the physical beauty of the Islands (in reality they
are rather scrubby and rank low on the beauty scale
compared with many other Caribbean islands) was described
in glowing terms. All these and many others made the
population very tourism-conscious.
As would be expected, traditions were breaking
down at an accelerating rate under the pressures of
economic development in general and the increasing impact
of tourism in particular. There were the usual complaints
from the older generation that the new prosperity had
"ruined" the younger generation making them lose respect
for their elders and develop rudeness, which is a more
serious complaint in West Indian society than in our own.
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With the rapid upgrading of people, both occupationally
and monetarily, and the impact of mainland culture from
all the sources discussed above, traditional behavior
patterns were being eroded. Aside from some general
nostalgia, however, there was really very little concern
on the part of most people. One exception here was the
traditionally religious who were alarmed at the growing
irréligion of the young. One indication of the eroding
culture was the shift in eating habits. As early as 1952
a local government nutritionist commented about the dying
out of native foods, and today Island and mainland menus
are almost indistinguishable.10 As already mentioned, the
Virgins were a basically culture-poor society and by this
time the few and weak traditions that were being given up
were easily overlooked alongside the accelerating
economic progress. There was little of the cultural
awakening which was going on in so many emerging
Caribbean states in the Virgin Islands. This was largely
because there was no political movement comparable to the
T. Jones, Impressions of Nutrition Habits in the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas: Virgin Islands Depart ment of Health, 1952).
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anti-colonialist struggle which would soon bring
independence to many of the Virgins* neighbors.
As noted earlier, the state bureaucracy was about
to expand very quickly and was to play an increasingly
important role in Virgin Island life during the I960*s.
This had not yet begun by 1961. The powers and functions
of the legislature had been set by the Revised Organic
Act of 1954 and have already been discussed. These had
not changed by 1961.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER VIII
1961-1971, DEVELOPMENT DECADE
A. Evolution in the Economy
Although there is a considerable amount of
statistical information on this decade, since the Virgin
Islands are not a nation or country there remain certain
large statistical gaps. For example, there are no
national accounts and no exact record of visitors since
visas are not necessary. Consequently, there is no good
estimate of the gross or net product of the Islands and
proxies such as the income data in the Census must be
used. In any case, the data which appear here are
probably as complete a picture of the economy as has
yet been put together.
Table 18 shows the remarkable population growth
of the I960’s. According to the census data, population
almost doubled from 32,099 to 62,468. While the former
figure may be a small underestimate, the latter is almost
certainly a serious undercount. This was not entirely
297
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TABLE 18
POPULATION IN 1960 AND 1970 BY RACE AND BY ISLAND
Percent Percent 1960 Distribution 1970 Distribution
TOTAL 32,099 100.0 62,468 100.0
Negro 20,634 64.3 45,309 72.5 White 5,373 16.7 11,339 18.2 Mixed & Other 6,092 19.0 5,820 9.3
ISLANDS
St. Thomas 16,201 50.5 28,960 46.3 St. Croix 14,973 46.6 31,779 50.9 St. John 925 2.9 1,729 2.8
Sources: 1970 Census of Population. Table 5; U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Table 5.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 299
the fault of the Census. Many aliens would not fill out
a census return, especially if they were illegal - and
there may have been anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000
illegals at the time. Even if they have a legal status,
many aliens, and not only in the Islands, try to have as
little to do with any civil authority as possible. The
Virgin Islands government felt that the true population
was around 82,000 to 84,000 and published their own
analysis in an attempt to prove the higher figure. There
is really no way to tell which numbers, if any, are
accurate. However, informed island opinion is unanimous
in asserting that the census count was a serious
underestimate.
The number of whites more than doubled as did the
number of blacks, both gaining percentage-wise viz a viz
the "mixed and other" group. The behavior of this last
category is somewhat anomalous. Historically they have
made up around 20 percent of the total population, and
there is no other evidence the author has found which
indicates this group did not grow along with the others,
despite the numbers enumerated by Census. The key may
lie in the way data were collected. In the 1960 Census
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definition, "The term 'Negro' is used to designate only-
full-blooded Negroes," while, "...'mixed and other races'
comprises persons of mixed Negro and other (white or non
white) parentage. . . In the 1970 Census, race was ex
plained entirely differently. "The concept of race, as it
has been used in this report, is derived from that which
is commonly accepted by the general public. It does not
denote clear-cut scientific definitions of biological
stock."2 Given the varying definitions, many people
counted as "mixed and other races" in 1960 probably were
counted as "Negro" in 1970. From a continental point of
view, the 1970 count would reflect reality better, since
a "Negro" is anyone with a dark skin and African features
no matter how slight. To the native Virgin Islanders,
the 1960 definition was undoubtedly more satisfactory
because they have always made much finer racial distinc
tions than continentals.
^U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Popu lation: 1960. Vol. I, Characteristics of the Popula tion. Parts 54-57, Outlying Areas. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1963, p. 52.
^U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Popu lation. Virgin Islands of the United States. PC(1)-B55. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1972, p. App-3.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 301
For the first time since the 1940's, St. Croix
recorded more inhabitants than St. Thomas. During the
nineteenth century St. Croix had almost twice the popu
lation of St. Thomas, but as sugar declined so did the
number of people. It is a measure of the rapidly in
creasing prosperity of St. Croix that its population
grew by 16,806 during the 1960's while St. Thomas'
population grew "only" 12,759.
Table 19 shows income distributions for 1960 and
1970. Great growth is apparent in all categories. The
number of income earners more than doubled while the median
income rose nearly three-fold from $1,621 to $4,656. Even
allowing for inflation, such growth in 10 years is nothing
short of incredible. The Virgin Islands government is
very proud of this record and is constantly pointing out
to anyone who will listen that the Virgins have the
highest per capita income in the Caribbean. As a matter
of fact, since there is no national accounting, no one
really knows what the per capita income is, although this
writer made an estimate ($2,377) from Census data. The
above are the favorable points which get played up in both
the island and mainland press, but serious distributional
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 302
HrocTiCNjfOrOH OcnrHinr^O tHr^ ovocr, 'd'O-oo tnooc- OH0>rHcgor^H or'.cMCTvLOMi-r^cricricyi ocy'oo-cj-vooor^coior^ g^nj^^g-cncor^vo g ^cnm:n oo-\Min\oo-d-o\oo\ 8:^ 3 3 = |3»»jjo:^goo S|SS£SSqS3S sssssssssss M  SSSggSïïS-i pSSSSSSSKS m CM H M in ( iissiSaSSSS ssSSsaisISs ïMsIMËsilïÊïïIiïsi ul 3HCO,HHCMrHHcncMCM S SMcJc^sf^oTV iiiiii iM iîi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 303 problems remain. In fact, the distribution of income in 1970 was almost certainly worse than in 1960 or 1950. Referring first to median incomes, that of whites in 1960 ($3,370) was 2.675 times larger than the median income of blacks ($1,260). The spread in median incomes in 1970 was almost identical (2.695 times), but due to the rapid growth of total income, the absolute gap had widened from $2,110 in 1960 to $6,478 by 1970. On a per capita basis the gap was worse since whites tend to have a higher rate of participation in the labor force. The gap between the per capita incomes of whites ($5,269) and blacks ($1,714) was 3.074 times. Lorenz curves calculated for the two years give a mixed picture. While the curves calculated for the whole population show a slight improve ment, curves for blacks and whites separately show worsening of the distribution over the decade. One does not like to admit even such slightly anom alous results into a dissertation, but honesty is better than suppression. The reason for the differing results lies entirely with the weight given to the open-ended class in the income distributions (more than $15,000). One must necessarily be arbitrary in assigning a weight and such Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 304 a weight is particularly important for the 1970 data since there were so many more incomes above $15,000 in that year (2,355 in 1970 and 171 in 1960). Consequently, this writer calculated these curves using two different but reasonable assumptions about the true weight of the over $15,000 class in the two years. The results thus avoid a spurious accuracy. Taken in general they are quite con sistent with the median income data given in Table 19 which show a constant percentage gap between the races in 1960 and 1970. All these indicators point to an essentially un changing and serious pattern of income inequality in the Virgin Islands. However, we have asserted that the distribution of income was almost certainly worse in 1970. The reason is that a large number of aliens - who are by far the worst paid group in the Islands - were present in 1970 but did not respond to the census. There was also probably considerably more underreporting of income by rich people for the simple reason that there were about 20 times as many rich people in 1970 as in 1960. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 305 Thus, while economic growth undoubtedly lessened the percentage of people in absolute poverty, two very serious problems remained. First was the large number of people with very low incomes. While 5,326 families and un related individuals earned $2,000 or less in 1960, almost the same number (5,190) reported incomes under $2,000 in 1970 (this is in current dollars; purchasing power had fallen substantially) and there were probably a large num ber of under-$2,000 income earners who did not report at all in 1970. Second is the proposition, discussed and hopefully proved above, that the distribution of income was both seriously unequal and probably worsening. The benefits of economic growth were accruing to some citizens much more than to others. Getting an accurate picture of landholdings through the I960's is made more difficult because the Census of Agriculture for 1970 had not been published as of this writing. Even if it had been, however, there would be serious problems interpreting it since the com plete phase-out of sugarcane farming in the middle and late 1960's would have made reasonable and accurate statistical analysis of farms difficult. In any case. Appendix Table 4 presents the data for farms on St. Croix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 306 in 1964. There are three aspects which are noteworthy. First is that the number of farms and the total land in farms continued to fall. Second, paradoxically, the acres devoted to sugarcane and the total harvest rose. Third and most important, however, is the overall constancy of the distribution of land in farms. The three largest categories of farms continued to hold about three-quarters of all land in farms, almost exactly the same proportion as in 1940. While in 1960 23 farms held 52.5 percent of the total area of St. Croix, in 1964 21 large farms continued to hold 44.9 percent of the entire island. On St. Thomas the number of acres in large farms had fallen from 4,101 to 3,815. These eight large farms held approximately 18.6 percent of the total land area of the island, down slightly from 20 percent in 1960. In value terms, land was more highly concentrated in the two islands in 1965 than in 1960. To measure changes in concentration, the $10,000 cut-off point of the 1960 analysis was multiplied by the average apprecia tion of land over the five year period for each island. This gave $20,100 as the new cut-off point for St. Thomas and $25,700 as the point for St. Croix. Of the total Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 307 assessed value of land in St. Thomas - $31,722,403 - $12,941,988 or 40.8 percent was held in parcels worth $20,100 or more. On St. Croix - out of a total assess ment of $36,213,381 - $18,535,437 or 51.2 percent was held in parcels worth $25,700 or more. Using the same tech nique as before, the author further totalled each family's holdings to see which of them came to more than $201,000 for St. Thomas and $257,000 for St. Croix. This isolated those families and corporations with total holdings in parcels of this value or more. On St. Croix there were ten families and seven corporations who held parcels assessed at $257,000 or more (again, these totals are made up of parcels worth $25,700 or more). The assessed value of these super-large holdings came to $6,324,487 or more than 17 percent of the total assessments of land on St. Croix. As before, a number of "royal family" names are prominent, including Armstrong, Nelthropp, De Chabert, Fleming and Skeoch. The others on the list for 1960 did not hold the $257,000 or more in assessed values. Corporate ownership of large pieces of land made considerable gains and besides VICORP, which was still the biggest landowner on the Island, the heavy Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 308 industrial installations of Harvey Alumina and Hess Oil had taken the number two and number four spots in the ownership of extra-valuable pieces of land. There were 18 families and three corporations on St. Thomas who owned parcels of land assessed for a total of $200,000 or more. The total holdings of these super valuable parcels was $9,256,065 or 29.2 percent of all assessed land values. All the names cited on the list for 1960 with the exception of the Hartmans appear in 1965, and two other prominent native families - the Lindquists and the Kirketerps - qualified with slightly more than the minimum $200,000 holdings. Many of the remaining 10 families were continentals, with Henry Reichhold still the person with the largest amount of land in parcels assessed at the $20,100 level. Among the three corporations, the West India Co. continued to be prominent. Using the same technique as above, a cut-off point for 1970 was also constructed. By that year the same piece of land that had been assessed at $10,000 on St. Croix in 1960 would have been assessed at $109,700 - yes, $109,7001 - if it had appreciated at the average rate Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 309 for the Island. In that year the total land assessment came to $154,521,300 of which $46,606,994 (30.2%) was held in parcels assessed at $100,000 or more (rounded for ease in calculation). With the same ten-times-the-cut-off criterion used for 1960 and 1965, six families and four corporations held more than $1,000,000 in parcels worth at least $100,000 a piece. The "royal family" names of Armstrong, Skeoch and Nelthropp still appear along with two continentals and a Puerto Rican. Families and cor porations which held more than $1,000,000 in assessments consisting of pieces valued at $100,000 or more each owned a total of $26,920,032 or 17.4 percent of all assessed values. Corporate ownership of land continued to make gains on St. Croix with the corporations (Hess, Harvey, Harvlan, and West Indies Enterprizes - VICORP's charter had not been renewed) holding $17,325,026 in large parcels versus the $9,959,006 held in such parcels by families. Thus, we have the interesting phenomenon that on St. Croix the percentage of land held in large parcels (more than $100,000 per parcel in 1970) had declined significantly while at the same time the corporate ownership of such parcels was becoming more and more Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 310 dominant. This growing corporate ownership is part of the general take-over of the Islands' economy by con tinental interests. Due to the unavailability of crucial data, a parallel analysis for St. Thomas was not possible. Table 8 gives the figures on tourism in 1970. The figures pretty much speak for themselves and show the phenomenal growth in this area during Development Decade. Although the great majority of tourists came by air during these ten years, cruise ship traffic also showed a tremendous increase. Furthermore, about 90 percent of the cruise ship passengers stopped only in St. Thomas. The significant thing about cruise ship traffic is that these tourists only stop for one day in Charlotte Amalie and sleep and eat on the boat. Consequently, almost their only activity is a day of shopping in the town. The crush is especially frenzied on Wednesdays when most of the ships, sometimes as many as seven or eight, dock at once and disgorge thousands of people into the narrow streets of the city. Consequently, the tourist scene on St. Thomas has a more transient and rushed air than it does on St. Croix where most of the tourists come to stay at least a week. The table also gives the official Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 311 figures on tourist expenditures for the various years. Table 20 contains percentage data on the patterns of occupation and employment. Table 20 is from the censuses of the various years listed and permit com parison of the 1970 situation with that of previous years. These figures are consonant with the economic developments already outlined, namely the growth of tourism and its related industries such as construction and the general thrust toward the occupational distribu tion of a more economically advanced society. The con struction sector made significant gains along with certain types of manufacturing such as watch-making and textiles which were attracted to the Virgin Islands by a number of favorable tax and legal features which will be discussed later. The other areas, transportation, trade and public administration, are too aggregated to show the significant shifts toward tourism which occurred. On the other hand, the data for agriculture show the final decline of that activity with the phasing out of sugar production on St. Croix. The occupation data reflect the same general trends. All areas gained at the expense of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 312 Table 20 EMPLOYMENT FROM 1940 TO 1970 BY INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATION - IN PERCENTSa By Industry 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Agriculture 1.2 5.6 20.1 22.9 Manufacturing 9.1 8.0 5.6 7.3 Transportation 5.3 6.0 5.2 4.0 Retail Trade 13.3 16.1 12.6 13.2 Private Household 6.0 9.0 11.8 20.7 Services 21.1 20.7 12.9 12.1 Public Administration 9.0 10.3 9.7 7.5 Construction 16.1 12.6 11.4 6.5 Miscellaneous 18.9 11.7 10.8 5.8 By Occupation Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Professional, Technical 11.4 8.3 7.3 6.1 & Kindred Managers & Administrators 10.4 10.3 7.4 6.9 Clerical & Sales 20.8 17.1 12.1 11.9 Craftsmen, etc. 18.2 13.2 13.5 8.4 Laborers 7.5 9.6 11.6 11.6 Service Workers 14.7 9.6 15.6 16.8 Farmers & Farm Laborers 0.7 3.3 16.6 18.5 Private Household Workers 5.8 7.3 10.4 19.7 10.5 21.3 5.5 0.1 ^Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding. : 1970 Census of Population, Table 14 and Table 13; U.S Census of Population; 1960, Table 25 and Table 24; United States Census of Population: 1950, Table 68 and Table 67; Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, Table 11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 313 farmers and farm laborers, general laborers and private household workers, reflecting the general alteration of the labor force to a more "developed" type. Table 21 is more interesting because it comes directly from the Virgin Islands Employment Security Agency, the local government office concerned with employment statistics, among other things. These data have the advantage of being classified in a way more appropriate to the Islands, something the Census cannot do since it is national. Several things about the data stand out im mediately. First is the extraordinary growth in covered (by unemployment insurance) employment from 12,125 in late 1962 to 30,192 at the end of the decade. Second is the continuing predominance of government employment, almost steady at about 27 percent of the total and growing in absolute terms from 3,253 to 8,170. Unlike the other areas, 1969 did not represent a peak for government employment. In 1968 the total was 8,194 or 31.5 percent of all workers. Because of the rapid growth of the total, many industries gained substantial numbers of workers while dropping as a percentage of the total - especially if the 1962 base was large. For example, manufacturing. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 314 TOTAL COVERED EMPLOYMENT DECEMBER, 1962 - ALL ISLANDS 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1969 12,125 12,784 16,020 17,836 22,465 22,556 26,052 30,192 Agriculture 165 167 174 150 143 138 92 133 1,176 1,497 2,809 2,699 4,470 3,733 4,679 5,474 Manufac- 1,196 1,088 1,419 1,568 1,937 1,878 1,981 2,500 Transporta- 1,376 1,062 1,390 1,503 1,929 1,910 1,859 2,049 Communica- 234 175 170 Wholesale 244 231 291 294 . 310 300 319 414 Retail Trade 2,282 2,312 2,536 3,213 3,890 4,584 5,442 Finance 467 457 605 570 650 634 820 1,556 1,447 1,671 1,869 2,056 2,094 2,397 2,521 3,119 Personal 113 84 163 128 157 182 268 Services Auto Repair 105 165 139 164 213 249 342 Education 67 123 243 307 293 283 358 Government 3,253 3,752 4,267 4,939 6,076 6,618 8,194 8,170 PERCENT OF 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Agriculture 1.3 1.1 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.4 Construc- 11.8 17.5 15.1 19.9 16.5 18.0 Manufac- 9.9 8.5 8.9 8.8 8.3 8.3 Transporta- 11.3 8.3 8.4 8.6 8.5 7.1 6.8 Gommunica- 1.4 1.1 Hholesale 1.6 1.3 1.4 Retail Trade 18.9 15.8 18.0 17.8 17.2 17.6 18.0 Finance 3.6 3.8 3.2 2.9 2.8 3.1 5.2 11.9 13.1 11.7 11.5 9.3 10.6 10.3 Personal 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.9 Services Auto Repair 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 Education 0.6 1.5 1.7 1.3 1.9 1.1 Government 26.8 26.6 27.7 27.0 29.3 31.5 ^Percents may not add to 100.0 due to rounding. Source: Virgin Island Employment Security Agency. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 315 which more than doubled in the number of people employed, dropped from 9.9 percent to 8.3 percent of the total; and transportation, despite a gain of nearly 700 workers, fell precipitously from 11.3 percent to 6.8 percent. Going a little deeper, we notice that the six industries employing the greatest number of people in 1962, in order of importance, were: government, retail trade, hotels, transportation, manufacturing and construction. By 1970, government was still first but construction had moved up from sixth to second, reflecting the tremendous boom in all types of housing and tourist facilities. Trade had dropped to third, hotels to fourth, manufacturing remained in fifth place and transportation had fallen to sixth. The implications of both the growth in total employment and shifts in social groups occupying the various industries still remain to be analyzed. What is important here is that the reader get a feel for the rapid changes taking place in these few years. Table 22 also gives valuable information on the structure of the economy. This table is a listing of all firms which employed 50 or more persons in 1970. Although the exact number of employees in each firm is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 316 not available, a minimum of 15,300 employees are represented and as many as 27,450 people may have been working in these establishments. If the firms were distributed along a normal curve within each size class, about 21,300 people would have been employed by these 104 firms. In any case, according to the 1970 Census the civilian labor force was 28,031 and according to the Virgin Islands Employ ment Security Agency the number of people employed and covered by unemployment insurance in December, 1969 was 29,347. Both probably underestimate the total workforce, but be that as it may the list in Table 22 almost certainly shows the employment of a majority of workers in the Islands, and since it is a complete listing of all establishments employing more than 49 people, it definitely shows all the important employers in the Islands. A cataloging of these firms by industry is quite revealing and further points up the dimensions of the tourist economy. Out of the 103 firms listed, 30 were construction businesses. This is by far the largest group and four of the six largest firms in the Virgin Islands were in that field. Next come hotels, beach Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 : : : = LI 3- as - ii I iilliiièl llllllï Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. * ii .1! Î 1. i'i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 319 clubs and the like along with retail trade. There were 17 firms in each of these areas. Other prominent in dustries included watch companies (seven firms), real estate (six firms), banks (four), and air transportation companies (four). There were 19 businesses which did not fit any of these common categories, the two most important being the heavy industrial installations of Hess Oil and Harvey Alumina on St. Croix, each employing between 250 and 499 workers. The tourist emphasis of all this is clear. The construction industry is largely preoccupied with building for the transient tourist, vacation home owner, and retiree and seven of the 17 retail trade outlets listed are large gift and liquor shops. The real estate industry is tributary to the tourist industry since even at the higher levels of living few natives can afford the inflated prices of residential land. Both the agents and the customers are usually continentals. The major portion of both the banks' and airlines' business is, naturally enough, connected with tourism. The watch companies are not closely connected with tourism since they rely on the law allowing products with less than 50 percent of their total value in foreign Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 320 components duty-free access to the U.S. mainland. The first watch assembly plant was established in 1959 and turned out 5,000 units in that year. By 1965 the production had risen to over 4,500,000 units and Congress passed a law requiring that quotas be put on the Virgin Islands manufacturers to avoid damage to the domestic watch industry. The quota is large, one- ninth of total U.S. domestic watch consumption in the previous calendar year with 87.5 percent of that to be produced in the Virgin Islands. This made the Virgin Islands quota for 1967 3,773,886 units.^ The 1960's saw an explosion in both government revenues and expenditures (Appendix Table 1). In 10 fiscal years, revenues went from $15,478,235 (1961) to $105,902,865 (1970). The most noteworthy feature, besides the overall increase, has been the increasing importance of the income tax and the simultaneous decline ^1967 Annual Report, pp. 36-37. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 321 of federal matching funds - almost entirely the return of the federal excise tax on rum. Another interesting feature is the extraordinarily low yield of the real property tax, kept low because other revenues grew so fast and because all groups who speculated in land - and that included just about everybody with money - formed such a politically powerful force in the Islands. On the expenditure side, the most obvious effect of the rapidly increasing govern ment income has been a proliferation of departments, agencies and commissions funded by the local government. In 1961 these numbered 16 but by 1970 the total had grown to 25. (Minor commissions are not shown in the table.) The government even supports organizations which are usually funded by private donations on the mainland. In 1970 the Boy Scouts received $30,000; the Girl Scouts, $30,000; St. Thomas Golf Association, $6,000; Inter island tour by Girls' Softball League, $10,000; Carnival Committee, $12,000; Improvement of Race-track Facilities, $20,000; and the Humane Society, $20,000.4 ^E.A. O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 100. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 322 A particularly significant part of any local govern ment's spending is the education budget. Table 23 shows the growth of enrollment, spending and per pupil expendi ture. Even though enrollment doubled during the I960's, spending more than kept up by nearly tripling during the same period. Also noteworthy was the large and growing private school population. This growth in private school attendance reflects a general process of class-race segregation which became progressively stronger throughout the I960's, a process described in more detail later in this chapter. B. The Economic Dominance of the Continentals The economic-racial polarization of the 1960's has been sketched out in Chapter VII. In that analysis the new continental residents, both human and corporate, were seen as the entrepreneurial elite along with some of the old ruling class. By this decade that older ruling group had certainly lost the initiative. They had been largely bought out by continental interests and those who had not been bought out simply became the allies of the new economic elite. As allies, they were often directly connected with the continental interests and if Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 323 Illl ssSislssllsssasa sssslSssis' 11 i-l rH rH tH 1-Î 111 c'jo\oor^m pjiippsip.p.s ininin'^rsfrococo cscsjcmcmcvjcm p.SpPPailssis 33333°'”"'''"“”'“'*'"'" ii i i i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 324 they were not, they did nothing to resist the takeover. In short, they jumped on the economic bandwagon. The "fact" that mainland whites control the local economy is something "everybody knows." Of course such knowledge is not fully satisfactory for the social scientist, and although suggestive cannot substitute for "hard" evidence. Such "hard" evidence is very sparse for the simple reason that no one keeps data on the race and origin of property owners. Thus, to form a reasonable idea of the continental entrepreneurial group's position, we must rely on what little direct evidence is available and also on experienced observers of the local scenee. Conveniently for this writer, observers are unanimous that a continental entrepreneurial group controls the economic life of the Islands. This agree ment cuts across all lines, political, racial, class, native-continental, and generational. In The U.S. Virgins and the Eastern Caribbean, D. Creque, native author and Commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal, points out that, "Although the islands have achieved phenomenal economic advancement during the last decade, economic control has long since passed from the hands of native Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 325 Virgin Islanders to mainland American and foreign investors."5 As V. Hill, a local politician and historian, puts it, "Thus, the Virgin Islands have... become a paradise of wealth for American capitalists and entrepreneurs...while the native Virgin Islanders stand on the banks of the fast-slowing economic stream like pawns in a human chess game."6 interviews with the author, other native educators and politicians - to say nothing of taxi drivers - concurred. Resident con tinentals also agree. Gladwin quotes a white real estate man as saying, "...I think the native is becoming more philosophical about this takeover (of the economy by mainland whites, WJK), if it is such, and accepts it as inevitable."7 Clyde Carder, a continental and high official of the St. Thomas Chamber of Commerce, chose to put it in a negative sense when he stated to the author ^D.D. Creque, The U.S. Virgins and the Eastern Caribbean (Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 1968), p. 263. 6v .A. Hill, Sr., Rise to Recognition (Private Printing, 1971), p. 113. ^Ellis Gladwin, Living in the Caribbean (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1970), p. 241. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 326 in an interview on February 4, 1972, that natives were not interested in business and so the mainland whites had basically taken over by default. Orlins went so far as to state that continentals were responsible for all the new enterprises in the Virgins.8 As stated before, there is no data on business ownership by race. Utilizing the knowledge gained by direct observation of the Virgin Islands economy, a number of miscellaneous references in various publications, and some fairly obvious giveaways - the Chase Manhattan Bank is certainly not native-owned - of the 104 large businesses listed in Table 22, 59 are definitely con tinental-owned, nine are definitely native-owned, and 36 were not readily classifiable. Many of these last 36 were construction companies and although this writer was not able to make decisions concerning the ownership of particular firms, the great majority of all construction in the Islands is carried on by continental-owned com panies. Of the nine native-owned enterprises, three were %artin G. Orlins, The Impact of Tourism on the Virgin Islands of the United States (Ann Arbor: Univer sity Microfilms, 1969), p. 245. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 327 the Riise complex - the Paiewonsky family business - and two were firms owned by the Merwin family of St. Croix. Merwin, the reader will recall, was Republican governor from 1958 to 1961, and the Merwin family is one of the "royal families" of St. Croix. Both the Paiewonskys and the Merwins are native whites. From these estimates it is fairly safe to say, although not provable in a strict sense, that at least 75 to 80 percent of the large businesses on the Virgin Islands are continental-owned. It should also be borne in mind that the Merwins and the Paiewonskys, especially the latter, have had ex tremely close relationships, both political and economic, with some of the largest of the new continental entre preneurs such as Leon Hess, Henry Reichhold, Sidney Kessler, Henry Kimelman, and 0. Roy Chalk. Other supporting evidence of white ownership and control of the economy and other more general features of white preeminence are found in the 1970 Census. Table 24 gives the occupations of persons by race for that year and the data are nothing short of dramatic. While the blacks outnumber whites more than three to one in total employed, the numbers in the professional, technical and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 328 TABLE 24 OCCUPATION OF EMPLOYED 1970 Employed Persons 16 Yrs. & Over Total White Negro TOTAL . 24,501 5,505 17,079 1,917 Prof., Tech., etc. 2,798 1,264 1,317 Engineers 70 41 11 Physicians, etc. 121 58 34 29 Other Health Workers 276 68 187 21 Teachers 770 332 36 . Technicians 163 82 70 11 Other Prof. 1,346 654 583 Managers & Admin, (ex. farm) 2,555 1,408 Salaried: Mfg. 143 98 30 15 Retail Trade 467 269 144 54 1,682 822 756 104 Self-Employed: Retail Trade 99 73 16 10 164 146 14 4 1,547 633 788 126 Mfg. & Wholesale Trade 123 42 70 11 Retail Trade . 1,129 404 633 295 187 85 Clerical & Kindred 3,558 964 2,380 214 Bookkeepers 387 138 222 27 Secretaries, etc. 1,145 391 74 2,026 435 1,478 113 Craftsmen, etc. 4,462 543 3,476 Auto Mechanics 331 29 273 29 Other Mechanics 68 207 34 Machinists 14 2 12 Other Metal Crafts 37 4 32 Carpenters 879 58 733 88 Constr. Crafts 1,485 111 1,245 129 1,407 271 974 162 Operatives, Ex. Transp. 1,534 128 1,219 187 Durable Mfg. 422 35 313 74 Non-durable 391 41 300 50 Non-mfg. 721 52 606 63 Transport Operatives 1,017 74 827 116 Truck Drivers 330 25 248 57 Other Transport 687 49 579 59 Laborers, Ex. Farm 1,841 142 1,528 171 Construction 652 28 575 49 Freight, Stock Handlers 27 255 55 852 87 698 67 Farmers & Managers 47 26 18 3 Farm Laborers & Foremen 125 17 95 13 Service Workers 3,608 271. 3,130 207 Cleaning 986 26 56 1,257 95 1,116 46 10 181 15 Personal Serv. 362 80 249 33 Protective Sere. 518 30 451 37 Private Household 1,409 35 1,341 33 Workers Source: 1970 Census of Population. Table 13. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 329 kindred groups are nearly equal. In fact it is only the black predominance in teachers and lower level health workers which gives them any large numbers at all. Put another way, less than one in twelve blacks is a professional, technical or kindred worker while the ratio for whites is one to 4.4. Even more striking, and more germane to the issue of economic control, is the data in the managers and administrators category. Table 25 gives selected percentages of persons in various occupations by race. Notice that despite the fact that almost 70 percent of all workers were black, 55.1 per cent of the managers and administrators were white versus the 37.6 percent which were black. The dif ferences for salaried managers and administrators are very marked, but the data for self-employed businessmen are nothing short of incredible. In the non-retail trade area there were more than ten times as many whites as blacks. Glancing back at the actual numbers on Table 24, the total of white self-employed managers and administra tors is 219 while the total number of such black busi nessmen was a miniscule 301 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 330 TABLE 25 OCCUPATIONS OF EMPLOYED, 1970 IN PERCENT Total White Negro Other TOTAL 100.0 22.5 69.7 7.8 Prof., Tech., & 100.0 45.2 47.1 7.8 Kindred Managers & 100.0 55.1 37.6 7.3 Admin, (n-farm) Salaried Mfg. 100.0 68.5 21.0 10.5 Retail 100.0 57.6 30.8 11.6 Trade Other 100.0 48.9 44.9 6.2 Self-Employed Retail 100.0 73.7 16.2 10.1 Other 100.0 89.0 8.5 2.4 100.0 40.9 50.9 8.1 Clerical & Kindred 100.0 27.1 66.9 6.0 Craftsmen, etc. 100.0 12.2 77.9 9.9 Operatives, Ex. 100.0 8.3 79.5 12.2 Trans. Laborers, Ex. Farm 100.0 7.7 83.0 9.3 Service Workers 100.0 7.5 86.8 5.7 Private Household 100.0 2.5 95.2 2.3 Workers Source: 1970 Census of Population, Table 13. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 331 The imbalance in lower status and paying occupa tions was just as great but with the representation of the races reversed. Sales, a higher status position in the Virgin Islands than in the United States, had high white representation (40.9%), but from there white participation drops off dramatically. In blue collar jobs - remember that manual labor has a lower status position in the Islands than on the mainland - craftsmen were more than six times as likely to be black than white, and for the even lower level jobs such as operatives, laborers and service workers there were about ten times as many blacks as whites. Finally, in the lowest status occupation of all, domestic service, only 2.5 percent of such workers were white while 95.6 percent were black. Another interesting aspect of the positions of white and black in the Virgins is a comparison of educational levels in the two groups. The interest lies not so much in the issue of control over the economy but more on the relative positions of the races since there tends to be a high correlation among such characteristics as income, class position and education. The following data are taken from the 1970 Census. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 332 median number of school years completed for the white population over 25 was 13.1 as opposed to that of the black population which was only 8.0. More germane from a distributional point of view, however, is that 78.9 percent of the whites had completed four or more years of college; only 3.3 percent of the blacks had done so.9 C. Continentals. Natives and Aliens At this point begins a more complete analysis of the various major ethnic groups - the continentals, the natives and the aliens - building on what has already been said about each and tying together some other facts to achieve as detailed a social map as possible. The analysis begins with the white (continental) population. It may not be fully obvious from the foregoing, but the resident continental population is quite diverse. Readily identifiable groups include a fairly large retired segment made up largely of ex-military men and their families who were exposed to tropical duty during their careers and enjoyed tropical living. Many of these people ^U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Table 10, p. 21. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 333 are long-time residents going back 15 to 25 years. Another group, undoubtedly the largest, are what Lewis calls, "refugees from the American gray flannel suit belt," people who have left the ratrace of middle class corporate America in search of a better quality of life.These types tend to be in their prime working years and often have families with young children - resident continental children were quite rare even in the 1950's - and tend to be very active economically. They own or run most small businesses in the Virgins, and along with the representa tives of the many large corporate interests in the Islands make up the entrepreneurial stratum described above. There is also a contingent of the "jet set" centered around the plush Rockefeller-owned and developed resorts and a number of bohemian-beachbum-dropout types that one finds in all tourist and leisure-oriented spots. These last two groups are clearly marginal, adding little to island life but topics for gossip and sometimes scorn or envy. While the retired group - actually many of these Lilliput (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 180. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 people work in voluntary or paid capacities - is important, it is clearly the working, family-oriented continentals that set the tone for all resident whites. Aside from their economic and educational characteristics which were reviewed above, these "refugees" occupy a rather peculiar psycho-social position in Virgin Islands society which holds some interest. That position is summed up by the notion that although most continental residents see themselves as permanent and often express strong loyalty to the Islands, "The continental segment of the society, all in all, is characterized by both a minimum acculturation and a maximum ethnic identifica tion."^^ There are a number of traits of both the continental and the native which have made real integra tion impossible and make actual segregation more and more prevalent. The majority of the negative aspects come from the continental personality. First, there is little genuine interest in integration on the part of continentals because true integration would mean giving up some very important attitudes ; especially racism and the deep con viction that mainland ways of doing things are superior to all other ways. The latter is related to racism, but ^^Ibid., p. 191. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 335 it is not the same. A person can be anti-black and still have respect for, say, things French; while on the other hand a person might be both a racist and a cultural chauvinist. The British used to sum up their rejection of both non-white races and non-British culture with the Victorian saying, "Wogs begin at Calais." This can best be seen in the marked tendency to transfer the entire suburban American lifestyle, complete with car-pools, PTA's, development housing and highly organized partici pant sports, to the Islands. Consequently, the deeds of continental residents - the wholesale importation of the home culture - often belies their words, that is, verbal izing a need for "a new way of life." Of course racism exists too, and there is also class exclusiveness. On the native side this includes the upper classes' conviction that there is little to be gained through social intercourse with the newcomers, while on the continental side the majority are more bourgeois, higher income and more highly educated than the native middle class which adds one more gulf to bridge between them. The informality of continentals - the natives consider it lack of manners - is also often a real Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 336 barrier to friendship, and the general flashiness and aggressiveness of many continentals inevitably clashes with the conservatism and reserve of most natives.13 As noted before, the resident continentals tend to have a fast-buck, hard work, hyper-individualist mentality which expresses itself in aggressive business practices and opposition to control of private economic activity in the common interest (anti-planning, anti zoning) . This mentality, especially in its more extreme forms, often generates resentment as some natives see such people despoiling the Islands for narrow, short-term gains. All these factors have led to increasing class and race segregation. It is difficult to know how much of this segregation is due to class and how much to race, but residential, educational, social and economic segrega tion are clearly increasing. E, O'Neill notes a, "...with drawal of many whites from day-to-day social contact with the natives..."14 Lewis points out further residential ^^Ibid., pp. 185-186. ^^0'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins, p. 194. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 337 and social exclusiveness. There are entire neighborhoods, like Water Island and Judith's Fancy, which being in the main composed of well-to-do retired main- landers, take on at least the appearance of white residential districts. There are dining places, like Yacht Haven and Galleon House, the Cafe de Paris and the Left Bank, to which natives will rarely go; on the other hand they will eagerly patronize places like the Rixski restaurant, which serves native dishes, for reasons as much cultural as gastronomical,15 Various authors have pointed to the segregation in the schools. No private schools, of which there are many, are segregated; but there are practically no white children in the public schools. Here is Gladwin quoting a continental resident of St. Croix, I have three kids in St. Dunstan's School. They have been there for several years. Their very best friends in the school happen to be two Crucian boys. It doesn't make any difference to them basically whether a kid is black, white or. green. They find things in common and they enjoy each other tremendously. When they go out in public, which they really don't care to do, and get with native kids from other schools, they really freeze. My kids won't walk by the public school. They phone one of us to take them home. Too ^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 186. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 338 many times they have been stoned and booed and spat at, just from being white kids on the street. This is the ugly thing.16 And Lewisohn relates. During the past 12 years a number of private day schools had opened and among them had drained away most of the intellectual cream of the students, both black and white, from the public schools. Once well-integrated with children of both races, the unfortunate public schools with their lower curriculum standards of the time, are now attended mainly by the disadvantaged black children whose parents cannot afford the private school tuitions. These quotes, especially the last, show segregation based on both class and race, and it is interesting to see the prominent part class plays in the segregation process. The "alien problem," the immigration of other West Indians to the Virgin Islands, is an emotionally charged subject. Aliens are alternately praised as a key element of the recent economic growth and damned as the cause of social evils, especially crime. While the first is true and the second is probably beyond proof because the requisite data are lacking, the alien l^Gladwin, Living in the Caribbean, p. 24. Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), p. 408. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 339 population formed a large and increasingly important part of the society in the I960's and it is essential to under stand their unique status and the reasons for it to arrive at a complete and accurate picture of Virgin Island socio-economic development. Although there is little reliable data on any aspect of the alien presence, there is unanimous agree ment that the presence is large and decisively important to the Virgins. Estimates of their number vary widely. In 1967 the local statistical office estimated a total of 13,000. In 1966 the local office of the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization put the figure at 14,000.^^ A 1968 study put the number at 30 percent of the popula tion and 40 percent of the labor force which would trans late into anywhere from 18,000 to 24,000and in 1972 Mr. Carlos Batist of the Alien Interest Movement put the number between 25,000 and 30,000.^0 Probably more important ^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 220. ^^Social, Educational Research and Development, Inc., Aliens in the Up S. Virgin Islands : Temporary Workers in a Permanent Economy (Charlotte Amalie: College of the Virgin Islands, 1968), p.11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 340 than their sheer numbers, however, is the aliens' economic presence. Here it is safe to say that because of their disadvantaged social, legal and occupational position, the aliens have provided a gigantic subsidy - both economic and psychological - to the Virgin Islands' growth while at the same time absorbing a terribly disproportionate share of the costs of that growth. The economic subsidy comes from their low wages, high taxes and their filling the lowest level jobs enabling the natives to achieve a high rate of occupational mobility. The psychological subsidy consists of providing a scapegoat for the Islands' growing social problems - caused in part by official neglect of the legitimate aspirations of the aliens. The costs which the aliens bear are largely due to government sanctioned and enforced regulations which guarantee the alien the lowest social priority in general and which specifically, and negatively, effect him in his housing, social services and education of his children. The economic life of the aliens is heavily con centrated in those areas which appeal least to the natives and are the lowest paid. These are personal service and hard labor jobs such as construction, domestic service and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 341 menial hotel work. Probably the best survey of employment patterns can be found in Orlin's dissertation for the years 1960 through 1965. Listed in Table 26, these job placements by the Virgin Islands Employment Service in selected areas are broken down into a "local" and a "foreign" (alien) component.21 Although the table only goes through 1965, it accurately reflects, as nearly as this writer can determine, the occupational distribution of the aliens in later years. Almost all observers estimate the percentage of aliens in the total employment in construction to be more than 80 percent with most of them unskilled, a similar percentage or more of domestic servants, and probably around 75 percent of the hotel workers.On the other hand, their participation in office work, taxi driving, retail sales, and government is quite low, probably not exceeding 10 percent. Wages, as mentioned before, are low. Minimum Wage Order No. 8, effective May 7, 1969, set minima of $1.15 per hour for such common alien jobs as: counterman/woman, waiter/ ^^Orlins, The Impact of Tourism, p. 233. ^^Ibid., p. 235. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 342 II Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 343 waitress, dishwasher, hotel janitor, hotel laundry worker, beachboy, bellboy, busboy, boathand, groundskeeper, etc. Construction laborers, handjmien and helpers (carpenter's helper, plumber's helper, pipefitter's helper, etc.) all received $1.60 per hour. These were the extremes with great numbers of workers earning between these two amounts and a few earning more. It was largely the continuing downward pressure on wages which led the U.S. Department of Labor to abolish the "bonded alien" program in 1970 and place severe restrictions on immigration of non citizens to the Virgin Islands. The aliens do the dirty work of the economy, and as a fragmented, unskilled, disadvantaged, exploited and poor segment of the labor force, they have some earmarks of a lumpenproletariat. The factor which keeps them from becoming a classic lumpenproletariat is their steady employment. They have a particularly high interest in staying employed since loss of their jobs may mean eventual deportation. Minimum Wage Order No. 8 and Minimum Recruitment Wage Order No. 2 (Charlotte Amalie, 1969), pp. 6-9. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 344 Aliens fall into three categories, permanent resi dents, "bonded aliens," and illegal aliens. Permanent residents have all the rights of citizens except those specifically reserved for citizens such as the right to vote and access to certain government jobs. Since there is so little practical difference between citizens and perma nent resident aliens and since permanent residency has few problems in comparison with the bonded aliens - the other official status group - they can be bypassedi for the present and included in the analysis wherever appropriate. The illegals have the simple if overwhelming problem of trying to survive economically in the face of indifference on the part of most institutions and the often zealous efforts of the immigration authorities to deport them. It is the bonded aliens, those who do not have the range of rights of permanent residents or the complete lack of rights of the illegals, who are usually in people's minds when they speak of the "alien problem" and so they will receive most attention here. The formal-legal aspects of the bonding system formed a unique complex which left the worker in an extremely disadvantageous position. Once the employer Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 345 had proven to the satisfaction of the employment service that it was not possible to fill a job with a native, an easy task in the labor-short economy, the job could be bonded and an alien imported to fill it.24 Thus, "bonded alien" was actually a misnomer since it was the job, not the alien, which was actually bonded - a seemingly small point except for the fact that it meant the alien would have absolutely no occupational mobility. If the alien left his bonded employment he immediately lost all legal status and was required to leave the Islands within five days. The length of residence for the alien was six months after which he was required to leave the Islands and re-enter with an extended permit for the next six month period. Since the alien was usually employed in the lowest paying jobs available, this semi-annual en forced trip was often a considerable financial burden. It was only the worker who was allowed residence. He was only permitted to bring his wife and children if the latter were accepted by an approved non-public school, a difficult requirement since private school was a large ^^Social, Educational Research and Development, Inc. Temporary Workers in a Permanent Economy, p. 17. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 346 expense and there were few places available. It was in cumbent on the employer to report any change in the worker's employment status to the authorities to dis courage illegal job transfers. The employer's other obligations were only simple pledges not to pay less than the statutory minimum wage and not to interfere with the worker's usual rights on the job. These pledges seem to have been widely ignored since the penalties on the employer were practically nil and any "troublemaking" alien could be easily gotten rid of by simply firing him and then reporting the fact of his termination to the authorities.25 Thus, the employer had a number of significant advantages, both actual and potential, over his bonded alien employees. As has been mentioned, the bonded worker had absolutely no occupational mobility which tended to make him very docile for fear of losing his job and being deported. Due to their often temporary nature and the fact that they were mostly interested in the highest possible cash wage so as to be able to send ^^Ibid., p. 18. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 347 home as large an amount as possible, such employees were usually not very conscious of fringe benefits. Bonded aliens were perfectly free to join unions, but this gave them little protection since a strike or grievance could have meant technical loss of the job and deportation. Other potential advantages included sub rosa arrangements to pay less than the minimum wage and the general potential to intimidate bonded workers in dozens of ways. Lastly, of course, was the interest of employers as a class in continuing the bonded alien program at a high level to insure a plentiful supply of tractable labor at the lowest possible wage.26 formal provisions above and the more general advantages just mentioned add up to a sorry situation; so sorry that Mr. John Walter, an official of the U.S. Department of Labor stationed in the Islands, summed up the bonding system as "a sophisticated type of slavery" while describing the system to the author.27 It is obvious from the formal-legal provisions just described that bonded aliens were placed in an extra ordinarily disadvantageous position. Having almost no 26Ibid.. p. 31. 27ititerview with the author on February 9, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 348 rights in law and even less extralegal power, the only protections available to such a group would have come through a strong and actively enforced program from the local and federal authorities to ensure reasonable fair ness and equity. Unfortunately, the record of the federal agencies has been spotty at best and the record of the local government has been uniformly dismal. The reasons for these poor records and especially the poor performance of the local administration are fairly straightforward and will be analyzed after a short description of the practices themselves. The massive indifference of the Virgin Islands Government has been apparent on every side. In a housing-short economy this poorest segment of the popula tion was effectively excluded from public housing. There was no statutory prohibition on aliens in public housing; they were excluded by the simple device of giving natives and permanent residents preference. Since aliens could not qualify for any type of financing to buy a house or apartment because of precarious legal status, this denial had the effect of pushing thousands of people into the "free market" for rental housing. Aliens were and are Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 349 mercilessly gouged for exorbitant rents for some of the worst housing under the American flag. The simplest room, with no plumbing or cooking facilities, would rent from $75 to $85 a month. A 1968 report stated. There are many stories of the problems faced by aliens in finding adequate housing in the Virgin Islands. For example, a taxi-cab driver in Barbados told a study staff member of a cousin who had to sleep in a tree on St. Croix. On another occasion, the study staff heard of four people who each rented the same bed for six hours a day. There are many stories of cases where six or eight people live in one or two-room apartments without sanitation facilities. Shack settlements, reminiscent of the suburbs of many Latin American cities, can be found throughout the Islands. Housing codes and rent controls are simply not enforced. Social services, with the small exception of some munici pal medical services, are not available to bonded aliens. They cannot qualify for public assistance, unemployment insurance, the surplus food program, day care, or, until recently, public school for their children.29 Temporary Workers in a Permanent Economy, p. 41. 29Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 225. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 350 The alien is also forced to pay dearly for this non-service since he is subject to all normal taxes, both federal and local. A particularly ironic twist to this tax situation is that under the terms of the federal income tax, the alien is not allowed to claim his family as dependents if they are living on the home island no matter how much of his salary the alien might actually send to them. Since most aliens actually do remit a large amount of their earnings home, this pushes the effective rates of income tax to very high levels. The foregoing are the "legal" areas of exploita tion. That is, the above practices are either positively within the law or, while of questionable legality, are approved by the state. An example of the latter was the exclusion of alien children from public school. This policy was challenged in court and thrown out as a viola tion of the Fourteenth Amendment.50 In a group so defense less, however, illegal forms of oppression were bound to flourish and they have ranged from personal subventions of the rules by unscrupulous employers to outright rackets. One of the most common subventions was the 50nill, Rise to Recognition, p. 137. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 351 acceptance of less than the minimum wage by the alien. This came about often because of timidity or ignorance on his part or more commonly through intimidation by the employer. Simple threats of firing him were usually sufficient to cow a worker, especially if he had illegally changed jobs as many had.51 Rackets included local officials charging "fees" for "assistance" in filling out or processing permanent residency papers, transshipment of alien girls to the mainland as domestics, again at exorbi tant "fees," and so forth. Last but not least come the many stories of illegal discrimination against aliens at all levels. There have been numerous incidents of harassment by police, the informal closing of federally funded programs to aliens because they are "too much of a burden" to the administrators, and many more stemming both from the aliens’ almost rightless status and the low esteem in which both the natives and continentals hold aliens. A measure of this low esteem is the recent evolu tion of an insult reserved for aliens - "garrot" - which is equivalent to "kike," "nigger" or "wop" on the mainland. 5lAuthor's interview with C. Batiste, February 3, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 352 The federal government has been responsible for a few improvements in the aliens' status in recent years. The most important assistance was rendered by the U.S. Department of Labor when it abolished bonded status in 1970. Any person who had worked during the previous six months and could prove it was given a new "temporary indefinite" registration and allowed to stay on. In a rare display of good sense, the Department included illegals in its new system which in essence enabled them to re-achieve a legal status. Between May, 1970, and February, 1972, more than 12,500 persons registered themselves as "temporary indefinite."52 This new status has one decisive advantage since the alien is no longer bound to a particular job. He now has the occupational mobility which is so necessary for personal security and decent working conditions. A potentially harmful pro vision still exists in the new regulation, however. If a "temporary indefinite" is unemployed for more than sixty days, he is subject to deportation. This could obviously be serious during periods of rising unemployment. With the end of bonded status, almost all further legal 52Author’s interview with J. Walter, February 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 353 immigration to the Virgins was cut off since it will be many years before the current "temporary indefinite" aliens will be able to obtain permanent residency under the strict 1968 immigration code. The reasons given by Department of Labor officials for the change in policy are interesting. Officials told this writer that the Department felt large-scale im migration of bonded aliens kept down wages, prevented working conditions from rising to mainland levels, put too much strain on the local administration and infra structure, and generally destabilized the economy and society.33 Thus, the federal government found itself as the somewhat unwilling advocate of the aliens' welfare since continued neglect seemed so patently harmful. The reasons for the generally deplorable treat ment of aliens, limited here to the bonded aliens and illegals, come on two levels. On the official level the handy idea of "temporary worker" provided a rationale for ignoring alien problems. After all, temporary workers bring only temporary problems and both would disappear at the end of the aliens' stay. It was obvious to all 33Author's interviews with J. Walter, February 1972, and J. Sheeran, March 6, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 354 concerned that when 30 to 40 percent of the labor force was alien such an idea was patently ridiculous, but there were pressing reasons for maintaining the "temporary worker" fiction. These reasons boil down to the fact that maintaining a large rightless quasi-lumpenproletariat was in the interest of the new continental economic oligarchy and, at the same time, also in the interest of the native- continental governing coalition. Considering the rather lengthy descriptions just given of alien-business and alien-govemment relation ships, the considerable advantages derived by both natives and continentals are intelligible. In general, the business community profitted by having a large, low paid and docile workforce to do the menial jobs so necessary in a tourist economy but which the natives were so reluctant to take. The benefits to the government were rather more subtle. To the extent that the continental-business group influenced government, and that is certainly a great influence, government people could be expected to have a "what's good for business is good for the Virgin Islands" attitude. There was also the not inconsequential matter of collecting alien taxes without having any responsibility Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 355 to provide services in return. Furthermore, aliens cannot vote and it is obviously much easier for any more or less representative government to ignore an unfranchised group than actual voters. Consequently, the aliens' best friends were appointed rather than elected officials. Governor Paiewonsky advocated the rapid granting of permanent residency to aliens in 1967 although the 1968 federal immigration law made this unfeasible. Also, it was the federal government which originated and imple mented the "temporary indefinite" idea. Probably the most important way the government exploited the aliens, however, was to hold them up as scapegoats for the rapidly developing social problems rather than confronting the problems themselves. This helps explain the almost constant identification of the alien with crime and delinquency. Even a compassionate and humanistic author such as Valdemar Hill, in an otherwise objective and sympathetic chapter on the aliens, is capable of saying, "Unfortunately, under normal circumstances it is the marginal and sub-marginal worker who migrates to better economic areas in search of a livelihood...The worker in the marginal and sub-marginal categories is usually Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 356 unskilled, uneducated, uncouth, and oftentimes include the criminal f r i n g e . "34 This is mild compared with the often scurrilous attacks on aliens, especially when one realizes that there is almost no hard evidence that they are responsible for the recent increases in Island crime. At first sight one might attribute such prejudice to simple xenophobia, but Virgin Islanders are reasonably hospitable and the Islands have always been quite cosmopolitan. The real reason probably lies on a dif ferent level. It seems that there was considerable reluctance to examine the causes of the growing social problems because it was rapid tourist development itself which was substantially responsible and the Virgin Islanders - particularly those in higher positions where the benefits of growth were so great - had neither the desire nor the capacity to view touristic development dispassionately enough to stop celebrating it and start analyzing it. In this case the aliens served the purpose of being a repository for much of the frustration, anomie and discontent which rapid economic growth was bringing about. It should be remembered that the alien presence 34yill, Rise to Recognition, p. 132. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 357 itself was the result of this headlong unplanned develop ment in a society with sharply limited supplies of native labor. Thus, it was in the interest of all powerful groups to keep the bonded alien status quo, and indeed all significant attacks on alien problems and exploita tion came from private groups or the federal government. The general contours of the native group during the 1960's have been sketched in the 1961 stop-action analysis. As was pointed out earlier, the 1960's saw the alliance of a significant part of the traditional ruling class with the fast-rising continental-business group. The middle class, traditionally the preserve of the descendants of the "free colored," was greatly increased with the addition of a large number of previously poor blacks who moved out of their proletarian position through a combination of a rapidly expanding economy and a source of new arrivals to take over their lowly status. This movement is the most interesting. First of all, however, the reader should not get the idea that this upgrading was solely, or even primarily, a simple increase in income. Incomes did rise quickly and significantly, but one ought to remember the great importance placed by the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 358 islanders on the type of job rather than the amount of remuneration. As already noted, there is a sharp distinc tion between "slave work," manual labor and personal service, and white collar jobs. Thus, a low level govern ment clerk or school teacher will feel superior to a skilled craftsman even though the latter might make a higher yearly income. The movement out of labor and domestic service and into government and other service employment, then, was perceived by the native participants as both an improvement in income more or less equivalent to the way a continental would perceive it and as a big jump in status and class position, a jump much larger in the native's eyes than the continental's. No direct figures are available on the numbers of native blacks employed by the federal and local governments in the Virgin Islands. It is possible to estimate the number from population, labor force, total government employment and other data, however. Making the conservative as sumption that natives and non-natives were proportionately distributed between government and private employment (which almost certainly makes these figures underestimates), natives who worked for federal Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 359 and local government made up 29 percent of the native labor force in 1950, 32 percent in 1960, and 54 percent in 1970. Put in absolute terms, the number of natives working for the government increased from 1,721 in 1960 to 6,340 in 1970 - an increase of almost exactly 4% times. The reasons for this incredible growth are complex and by no means obvious. They reach deeply into the political system of the 1960's and even deeper into the class and native-continental struggle on the economic and cultural levels. Consequently, they are best left for later in this chapter where those topics are specifically treated. At this point, however, it is important to note the extraordinary size and rapidity of this movement and its obvious importance as the main avenue of economic and social mobility for the native masses. The traditional upper class, although clearly not having the type of control it possessed during the long period of stagnation, has not simply been left in a political-economic backwater. As was pointed out before, some have made explicit business arrangements with con tinental interests either through partnership or outright sale of businesses and land. They have obviously profitted Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 360 in a direct way from such deals, but americanization has brought other benefits as well. Many of the scions of these families have been educated on the mainland and so have brought back valuable knowledge about how to deal with the new continental power. This even extends to language in that many of these people have lost that West Indian lilt, at least when talking with a continental. And, needless to say, many of the families not actually of the old elite but who have been rising for the last couple of generations have adopted many of the attitudes of their more traditional bretheren - a tendency often present among newcomers, such as the newly converted Catholic or Jew who may act more Catholic than the Pope or more Jewish than his rabbi. D. Politics Politics in the Virgin Islands have always been rather byzantine, and during the 1960's - with the appoint ment of the Paiewonsky administration and some very involved political-legal battles over political party names - the formal side of politics becomes incompre hensible to all but the determined observer. To avoid getting lost in details, two underlying movements should Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 361 be kept in mind through this discussion on politics. They are: (1) the increasing creolization of the personnel (but not necessarily policies I) of the local government, and (2) repeated movements toward conservatism by the local group in power followed by break-offs of more progressive forces, at times constituting a successful challenge to the status quo. This latter process can be seen in the formation of the Progressive Guide in the 1930's as the liberal alternative to the reactionary personalist politics of the pre-Organic Act era, the unsuccessful revolt of dissident members of the now conservative Progressive Guide in 1948 as the Liberal Party and their eventual success in toppling the Guide as the newly formed Unity Party in 1952, and the splitting off of a number of more liberal Democrats from the official Democratic Party in 1968 as the Independent Citizens Movement. Thus, this general movement of a liberal thrust followed by a growing conservatism and a new liberal movement has been a recurring theme in Virgin Islands politics over the years. As the pre-1961 period is already familiar to the reader, this section gives a brief account of the formal political battles of the I960's, leaving their significance for later. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 362 By 1961 the political system had been stable for a number of years. The Unity Party, which generally appealed to left-liberal voters and had most of its base in the working class, held a bare majority against the more conservative Democratic Party which had affiliation with the national Democratic Party. The party symbols were a mortar and pestle (Unity) and the donkey for the Democrats. With the adoption of the Revised Virgin Islands Election Code of 1963, this equilibrium was upset. Before 1963 local political parties had evolved their own structure and procedures. The Democratic Party in particular severely limited its membership to insure control for its traditional chieftains. The 1963 Revised Code declared that membership in political parties was open to whomever wished to join - the common mainland practice - and this set the stage for the takeover of the Democratic label by the Unity people. The Revised Code was passed by the legislature on a strict party vote of five Unity senators and one independent against four Democratic senators and one independent .35 At this point the Unity Party dissolved itself and its members enrolled 35lbid.. p. 105. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 363 as Democrats, taking over the Democratic Party label but keeping the mortar and pestle symbol. The "Donkey Democrats" then sued to regain the name "Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands" but were rebuffed by an appeals court which stated that there was nothing illegal or fraudulent in the mortar and pestle group’s enrolling themselves as Democrats.36 Soon afterward the Donkey Democrats formed a coalition with the Republicans and ran in the 1966 elections on a slate called "Victory 66" against the mortar and pestle Democrats.37 The situation was further complicated in 1968 when the mortar and pestle and donkey group had a rap prochement, leaving the Republicans as an independent party once more. This realignment also produced a split in the mortar and pestle group whose more progressive members saw the rapprochement with the donkeycrats as a sell-out of their liberal politics. This group split off and formed a new party which was christened the Indepen dent Citizens Movement.38 The political lineup for the ^^Ibid., pp. 105-107. ^^Ibid., p. 157. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 364 first elective governor contest in 1970 included three parties, the moderate-conservative Democratic Party, the conservative and small Republican Party, and the liberal- social democratic Independent Citizens Movement. To everyone's surprise, Melvin H. Evans, the Republican, won the governorship in a runoff election against Cyril King, leader of the I.C.M. This unexpected event gave the Republicans a chance to attain major status as a party which was something they had never had - Evans himself was a Democrat until just before the national Republican victory in 1968 and was the last appointed governor before his own election two years later. It still remains to be seen whether the Republicans will become a permanent major addition to the local political scene or whether a I.C.M. will survive. There have never been more than two major parties in the Islands for any length of time, and if the I.C.M. falls below five per cent of the vote in any election, it will lose its official status as a political party. Ironically, the Republicans can never lose official recognition since they were permanently recognized by a special law passed by the legislature at a time when the party was little Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 365 more than a social club for retired continental residents and the "royal families" on St. Croix to ensure ongoing relations with the national Republican P a r t y . ^9 The governor's powers have already been discussed in the analysis of the 1931-1954 period and the changes made by the Revised Organic Act of 1954 have also been mentioned. The advent of the Paiewonsky administration (1961) brought a considerable change in the practice of Island politics since Paiewonsky was a member of the inner circle of the Unity Party and immediately proceeded to build a classic political machine. The machine even had a generally recognized name, the "Ottley-Paiewonsky machine." Ottley was president of the legislature, head of the mortar and pestle Democrats, and president of the Virgin Islands Labor Union. In any case, the I960's saw no constitutional reform so the governor's powers remained the same as in 1954. However, the growing centralization of local power occasioned by the 1954 Revised Organic Act became even greater with the advent of local executive- legislative machine and the force of Paiewonsky's per sonality. He was the sort of executive who clearly 39lbid., pp. 157-158. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 366 enjoyed power and attempted to make all significant decisions personally. 40 G.K. Lewis has aptly summed up this local centralism in a passage worth quoting in full: Ever since 1954, when the Organic Act brought together the islands for the very first time as a unified whole, every level of government has become increasingly concentrated into, as it were, a concentric web with the nerve center in Government House in Charlotte Amalie. Virgin Islanders are, of course, denied the congres sional or the presidential vote. But even more unfortunately, they are also denied any real voting power in the structure below the executive-legislative level. All board, commission, and authority members are appointed by the governor with legislative consent, with the result... that the Virgin Islands is the only governmental entity in the entire United States whose citizens do not enjoy a measure of local democracy through their power to regularly elect members of the various boards - education, planning, tax, public utilities, and so on - that control so much of their daily life. It has been urged, in defense of this situation, that administra tive efficiency is thus facilitated. It would be more correct to argue, on the evidence, that it has led a patronage system in which, contrary to the American idea of local government, most boards are composed of a majority of govern ment employees who own both their livelihood and their board membership to the administrâtion. 41 The governor's powers, then, are extraordinarily great. Somewhat ironically, it may be that the elected governor ^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 298. 4llbid.. p. 302. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 367 will have even greater de facto powers than the appointed governor had since his local powers remain the same while control from Washington drastically diminishes. These two factors may result in greater freedom of action for the governor. It is too early to tell if this effect is significant, but Department of Interior officials and the chairmen of concerned Congressional committees have had considerable say in the policy of each governor - even Paiewonsky who had a much greater base of local support than most of his predecessors. The legislature, a unicameral body of 15 members elected to two-year terms, has usually played a sub servient role to the executive. This was particularly true in the 1960's. This is partially because the legislature is made up of part-time amateurs, mostly local businessmen, with little in the way of funds, facilities or desire to undertake the kind of aggressive investigative-legislative function necessary for an innovative, vigorous legislature. Another reason concerns the structure of the body itself. The president of the senate is also the chairman of the Rules Committee, a position so powerful that it gives the president effective Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 368 control of the legislative p r o c e s s . 42 since Earle B. Ottley was president of the senate and worked so closely with Paiewonsky, there was little opportunity for action on the part of the other legislators. And since most of those legislators were part of the Ottley-Paiewonsky machine anyway, there was not even much potential for vigorous legislative action. The relationships of race, class and political party in the Virgin Islands are complex. For example, much of the mainland political practice has been trans ferred wholesale to the Islands regardless of its applicability to local conditions. There is the problem of the different historical evolution of the various islands and the very real animosities and rivalries between them. There is the heterogeneity of the population, each group of which has certain historical and ideological peculiarities. And there is the important fact that, in the 1960's especially, the class structure itself went through very rapid alterations. This is an example of the "mediations" problem posed in the first chapter. Consequently, in examining the relationships of class. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 369 race and party, we must start with some very basic determinants and admit the above complicating factors - and more - in order to make some sense of the complex web of relations. Historically, there has been a fairly close rela tionship between class and party with the lower classes generally supporting the local liberals, first as the Progressive Guide, then as the Unity Party and then as the mortar and pestle Democrats. It would be incorrect to say, however, that there are class parties as are often found in Europe or that parties in the Virgin Islands express any pure class position. A much better parallel is with the mainland political parties which, while having some class roots, are influenced by a great many other factors. This should not be surprising. On the ideological level, the local parties have been largely based on mainland models and so they do not use the ideology or rhetoric of class to any meaningful extent. The dominant political ideas, which can be characterized as New Deal and post-New Deal corporate liberalism, con sciously attempt to put forward platforms of multi-class and multi-ethnic appeal. The heterogeneity of the population Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. is also a complicating factor. Probably best known is the example of the rejuvenation of the Republican Party, largely through the efforts of the large resident con tinental group who have changed its image from that of a social club for the old Crucian oligarchs to a more active, open and progressive i m a g e . 43 The current Lieutenant Governor, David E. Maas, is certainly the most obvious member of the continental group, but his nomination and election show that the resident group of continental professionals and businessmen is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to mobilizing votes. Another factor which has added fluidity to the local political scene is the rapid changes of the class structure itself. It is by no means obvious exactly how strong this factor is. At first sight, it could be considered dominant since one could equate the totally unexpected victory of the Republicans in the 1970 gubernatorial race with the rapid class changes already described and conclude that the latter caused the former. Such an explanation has plausibility, but the reality is more complex. First of all, the Republican gubernatorial 43Ibid., pp. 334-335. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 371 victory was not accompanied by anything like a sweep of the legislative seats. Second, it is not at all obvious that the class changes analyzed earlier would or did lead to a transfer of allegiance to the Republicans. Third, Governor Evans was an incumbent, having been the last appointed governor, and so had the advantages of in cumbency. Fourth, it may very well be that a temporary "we need a new face" syndrome was at work. Some or all of these factors may have been operative, but there is one other factor which certainly was present and which in fluences all Virgin Island political events. This is the rivalry and animosity between St. Thomas and St. Croix. This author has commented fairly extensively on the differing forms of development in the two islands in earlier sections of this study and came to the conclusion that the generally more conservative politics of St. Croix could plausibly be explained through the use of the hypotheses and method of historical materialism. Even today the inhabitants of the two Islands consider them selves Crucians or St. Thomians rather than Virgin Islanders and this localism influences politics in important ways. Localism is exacerbated since two Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 372 legislators are elected at large. Consequently, those forces strong on St. Croix attempt to get the vote out to the maximum extent on their Island and do whatever possible to keep the vote down on St. Thomas to elect two Crucians to the at large seats. Needless to say, the St. Thomians do the same. This inter-island split was a very real factor in the 1960's, and if anything was exacerbated by Governor Paiewonsky. At issue was the development of heavy industry on St. Croix, a policy avidly pursued by Paiewonsky, a St. Thomian. The reasons for Paiewonsky's encouragement of heavy industry (an alumina processing plant and later a large oil refinery to be developed by the Harvey Alumina Co. and the Her Oil Corp.) were several and quite consistent. The major reasons were succinctly put by a local magazine in a feature story on the Governor: "Ralph, to put it bluntly, was out to get Ward Canaday and the group he calls the 'royal families' in St. Croix. He would like to see a social revolution of young people to replace the 'old ways' that represent at least a two to one conservative, anti- Paiewonsky population that he feels smacks of colonial Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 373 servitude and segregation by wealth."44 Sincere desire to see the depressed standard of living of the local popula tion raised by the higher wages and new skills presumably brought in by the new installation was combined with a desire to break the power of the traditional ruling group on St. Croix and develop a new and hopefully pro-Paiewonsky majority on the Island. This was not just speculation. In an interview with this writer, Mr. Paiewonsky expressed such sentiments quite openly and as evidence of the re actionary stance of the royal families told a story about being approached by a representative of that group early in his administration. According to Paiewonsky, this person offered the political support of the royal families in exchange for a pledge not to disturb the group's priviledges and economic d o m i n a n c e . 45 Paiewonsky refused, and rapidly pushed ahead with his plan for an industrialized St. Croix. The deal between Government House and the Harvey Alumina Co. generated almost as much opposition as the project itself, and by the time the plant has been built, Paiewonsky had alienated a very large number of 44"Seven Long Years," Virgin Islands View, Vol. 3, No. 10, March, 1968 (Editorial, unsigned). 45Interview with author, February 10, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 374 Crucians. Conservationists were upset because of the serious environmental implications of heavy industry on a small island, the "royal families" were upset at the threat to their "way of life," and politicians and civil libertarians were incensed at secret negotiations and public hearings which were conducted with little regard for the rights and feelings of the opposition. Many people were flabbergasted by the terms of the contract - including 1,200 acres of government land free and a guarantee by the local government to keep an otherwise private ship channel perpetually dredged at public expense - and the few economic benefits which accrued to the local population since many of the employees were a l i e n s . 46 with all this as background, the continuing animosity between the two Islands is certainly to be expected. This split was directly reflected in the 1970 gubernatorial election when Cyril King carried St. Thomas but not by a large enough margin to defeat Melvin Evans, who carried St. Croix by an even larger one. ^^Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags, pp. 398-399. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 375 E. Government and Business In further exploring the ties between the base and political superstructure it is wise to keep some general facts in mind. The government, both elected and appointed, is solidly native and solidly black although white continentals and natives and some Virgin Island- b o m Puerto Ricans are represented. To some people this means that "black power" - government by the black majority in the interests of the black majority - exists. Politicians are prone to such statements, for obvious reasons, but on the evidence this thesis seems shallow at best. The following pages should make clear some of the links between the continental-dominated economy and the native-dominated government and try to show how and in whose interests that government functions. Despite demurrers on the part of some politicians and businessmen, the legislature is quite sensitive to the needs and demands of the entrepreneurial group. Many of the senators are businessmen themselves, and the business community can usually count on a sympathetic hearing from other members of the executive and legislative branches. Probably the best example of this sympathy is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 376 the long drawn-out case of the aliens, where despite the overwhelmingly obvious inequities of the bonding system, and the equally obvious danger to the social structure from such inequities, the legislature remained impervious to the need for corrective action. This is only one of the most obvious examples of a continuing tendency to put business interests over community interests. Other examples are legion. Abuse of the tax exemption program (explained in the following pages) is nearly universal; so much so in fact that even such a paragon of pro business attitudes as ex-govemor Paiewonsky pointed this out to the author in an interview on February 10, 1972. More specific examples come readily to mind. The Planning Board, which is also responsible for zoning, gives out special exceptions and variances almost on request as the following table for fiscal 1966 through 1969 s h o w s . 47 The "Granted" and "Denied" categories do not necessarily equal the "Received" because some applications were not acted upon, withdrawn or postponed. There were 446 applications granted and 91 denied. 47League of Women Voters, St. Thomas-St. John, A Study of Our Virgin Islands Government : Structure and Functions (St. Thomas, mimeo, 1970), p. 59. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 377 TABLE 27 ZONING DECISIONS OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS PLANNING BOARD Fiscal Years 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 Special Exceptions Received 123 199 220 Granted 69 117 164 Denied 21 34 24 Variances Received 23 36 58 Granted 15 35 46 Denied 4 3 5 Source; League of Women Voters, St. Thomas-St. John, A Study of Our Virgin Islands Government: Structure and Functions (St. Thomas, mimeo, 1970), p. 59. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 378 A high official of the local Chamber of Commerce pointed out, in defense of the idea that businessmen have little influence over governmental policy making, that it took a concerted effort on the part of the hotel owners association to get the legislature to exempt hotel employees from a minimum wage increase that was granted to all other types of w o r k e r s 148 The same official also commented that although the legislature was not sensitive to the needs of business, all significant groups of entrepreneurs have active trade associations whose business it is to influence government policy. While this writer was in the Islands the newspapers reported a previously secret deal whereby travel agents were given kickbacks of public money for booking more than a certain number of tourists into the Virgin Islands, the govern ment’s defense of this practice being that several other Caribbean resort islands had already adopted the arrange ment and so they had to follow suit in order to remain competitive. Another previously mentioned example is the non-enforcement of local building codes in poor areas. ^®Author's interview with Clyde Carder, February 4, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 379 especially those inhabited primarily by aliens; the whole incident of the establishment of the Harvey Alumina installation, also previously mentioned, is yet another. A particularly lucrative aspect of government aid to business is the tax exemption program just referred to. The tax program is not related to the provision of duty free import to the mainland market for goods containing more than 50 percent Virgin Island components by value ("section 301"). Tax exemptions can be applied for by any business. An exemption is "...made available for the promotion of such industrial or business activities as may be determined will promote the public interest by economic development of the Virgin Islands, and the establishment or expansion of which require the stimulus of such governmental assistance."49 This means that the onus of proof is placed on the applicant and the emphasis is on the applicant's need rather than an evaluation of the benefits which will accrue to the Virgin Islands. Both tax exemptions and subsidies (in the form of refunds 0. Oldman, and M. Taylor, "Tax Incentives for Economic Growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands," Caribbean Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, October, 1970, quotation from the Act, p. 187. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 380 of previously paid taxes) are given, usually for ten years, and can be extended. These are: 1. A subsidy for 90 per cent of import duties levied on goods necessary for producing or creating an article. 2. A non-taxable subsidy equal to 75 per cent of the income tax liability. 3. A non-taxable subsidy equal to 75 per cent of the income tax liability on dividends for stockholders of exempt corporations. 4. All taxes on real property. 5. All excise taxes on materials used in the construction and operation of the business. 6. All annual or specific fees, except those for liquor and automobiles.50 Although not all these need be given to any particular firm, the practice has been to grant maximum exemptions and subsidies. One of the few provisions in the law which attempts to ensure that some benefits accrue to the people of the Islands states that at least 75 percent of all employees must be legal residents of the Virgin Islands. However, a firm can apply for a waiver of this requirement for six months, a waiver which is usually easily extended at the firm's request.51 Some firms do ^^Ibid.. p. 189. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 381 not even bother with this formality and simply ignore the employment provision altogether. Table 28 shows the average percentage of bonded employees was suspiciously close to the cut-off during the late 1960's - estimates which almost certainly contain a large undercount - while by 1970 even the official figures show the percentage of bonded employees as far more than the target set by the tax incentive law. Firms that hold certificates of tax exemption - there were 80 in 1967 - include hotels and guest houses, watchmaking firms, costume jewelry manu facturers, woolen shower-proofing plants, woolen textile mills, chemical firms, and a miscellaneous c a t e g o r y . The two large installations of Harvey Alumina and Hess Oil on St. Croix have full exemption. The value of all exemptions and subsidies amounted to $18,430,759 in fiscal 1970, having risen from $1,415,839 in 1965. While This may not seem large, a comparison of the amount of exemptions and subsidies with the total yearly payroll of tax exempted firms shows a steady rise from 21 percent of total payrolls in 1965 to 96 percent of total payrolls in 1970 (see Table 28). In other words, in 1970 for every ^4 b i d ., p. 189. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 382 TABLE 28 FINANCIAL AND EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF TAX EXEMPT FIRMS 1965-1970 Exemptions and Subsidies Received by Tax Exempt Firms Customs Excise Income Dividend Total 1970 $5,574,071 $114,860 $12,438,282 $303,546 $18,430,759 1969 6,127,812 342,088 3,486,848 152,172 10,108,920 1968 2,447,716 380,536 3,281,594 49,951 6,159,797 1967 1,332,632 696,173 1,181,626 14,477 3,224,908 1966 605,874 NA 946,681 9,870 1,562,425 1965 482,359 NA 930,018 3,462 1,415,839 Employment Characteristics of Tax Exempt Firms Year Number of Firms Employment Bonded Employment Payroll 1970 81 4,837 2,045 $19,209,000 1969 NA 3,589 970 14,022,000 1968 NA 3,253 704 11,328,500 1967 80 3,227 NA 11,000,000 1966 NA NA NA NA 1965 81 2,320 629 6,500,00 Total Tax Exemption and Bonded Employment/ Subsidy/Total Payroll Total Employment 1970 .96 .42 1969 .71 .27 1968 .54 .20 1967 .29 NA 1966 NA NA 1965 .21 .27 Sources: 1970 Annual Report of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970), pp. 149-150; 1969 Annual Report, p. 117; 1968 Annual Report, p. 114; 1967 Annual Report, p. 88; 1965 Annual Report, p. 69. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 383 dollar in wages paid out, these firms received a dollar in subsidy or exemption I Receiving certificates of exemption is not terribly difficult. Information for 1965, 1967 and 1969 shows that the rejection rate was low; none in 1965, four (out of 22) in 1969 and eight (out of 31) in 1967.The reasons given for this exceedingly favorable treatment of business revolve around the idea that concessions are necessary to attract business, but this justification is open to serious question. A large number of exempt firms are "section 301" manufacturers who were undoubtedly attracted to the Virgin Islands by the possibility of evading U.S. tariff barriers. It is extremely doubtful that hotels would have looked unfavorably on the Islands in the absence of tax incentives given the tremendous growth in tourist visitors, and even the heavy industry of St. Croix was certainly attracted more by the exemp tion from U.S. coastal shipping laws than by icing their 53 1969 Annual Report, p. 58; 1967 Annual Report, p. 88; 1965 Annual Report, p. 68. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 384 profits cake through tax breaks. Thus, the real worth of the tax incentive program as a development device in the Virgin Islands is doubtful at best, and considering both its form and its manner of administration it is probably better explained as another fast-buck scheme showing the fundamental power of business groups, both native and continental, than as a serious development tool being rationally used to better people’s lives. The establishment of the Hess Oil refinery on St. Croix in 1965-66 clearly reveals the extraordinary benefits granted to business by the local government. Exemption from U.S. coastal shipping laws was the greatest inducement for locating the refinery in the Virgin Islands. These laws require that any foreign flag ship touching at a U.S. port must stop at a foreign port before its next U.S. stop. The effect is to limit coastal trade to U.S. flag ships. Because of this requirement, if a company built a refinery in, say, Florida to be supplied by foreign crude, the company could ship crude to Florida in foreign tankers but not use those tankers to transport finished products to any other American port. The coastal run would have to be made by an American flag tanker at Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. much higher rates. By refining in the Virgin Islands, which is exempt from the law, Hess could save 25 to 45 percent of transport costs on the run to New York - Hess' principal market - by using all foreign flag t a n k e r s . 54 Thus, Hess could have the transportation cost advantages of a refinery on foreign soil without the potential risks of investment in newly independent and possibly expropriation-minded Caribbean countries. With this advantage in mind, and reportedly at the urging of David Rockefeller who is influential in the Virgin Islands and is also one of Hess' principal bankers, Leon Hess approached Ralph Paiewonsky.55 The deal was quickly consumated. Hess offered: 1. A $70,000,000 investment of which $30,000,000 was to have been a petrochemical plant. (A petrochemical plant employs more workers at higher skill levels than a refinery.) 2. Seventy-five percent of the workers to be 'legal residents' of the Virgin Islands. This was to grow to 90% by 1973 under the terms of the oil import license granted by the Department of the Interior. O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins, p. 120. 55lbid., p. 119. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 386 3. A royalty of 50ç per barrel paid to the Virgin Islands Government for conservation, pollution control and beautification in the Islands. This was also the idea of the Interior Department, and would amount to $2,700,000 a y e a r . 56 Notice that the second part of 2. and all of 3. was not demanded by the local government but was required by the federal government as conditions for granting the import license. In exchange for the investment and employment provisions and royalty payments, Hess was granted the full range of subsidies and exemptions for 16 years despite the fact that the exemption law called for a 10 year maximum.57 These benefits were also granted without the required public hearing.58 Hess was given, in addition to the subsidies and exemptions specified by law:59 ^^Ibid.. pp. 121-122. 1970. Letter, with attachments, provided to the author by the Office of Territories, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. Attachment, p. 1. ^^Ibid. ^^Ibid., pp. 1-2. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 387 1. A 100% subsidy on import duties on raw materials (the law grants only 90%, the subsidy is a return of duties paid). .2. 'A Five-year exemption from unloading charges at public wharves for equipment, building materials, and furnishings; 3. 'an undertaking which would automatically increase Hess' benefits if any person, firm or corporation were subsequently granted more favorable treatment; 4. 'a promise that the Government would exert its influence to secure a petroleum import allocation. Corps of Engineers permits, and other priviledges from the United States Government;... 5. 'a pre-clearance of any planning or zoning problems at the refinery site; 6. 'an exclusive 40-foot easement and non exclusive adjoining 36-foot easement from the docking facilities to the Hess site; 7. 'a payment of $500,000 to reimburse Hess half of the estimated expense of dredging and diking the eastern portion of the turnabout area in the Krause Lagoon.' Howard Ross, Comptroller of the Virgin Islands, wrote a memo to John R. Price, Special Assistant to the President, in September of 1970 summing up his opinion of the arrangements with Hess. Ross, an appointee of the federal government, noted that a cost/benefit study of Hess Oil's operations had never been made. He then said. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 388 It is my suspicion that any indirect benefits added to the royalties of $2,700,000 per year and one-fourth of the Income Tax retained by the Virgin Islands Government (75% refunded), would be far more than offset by: 1) The excess of import subsidies paid, over import duties received from U.S. Customs ($1,613,280 to date). 2) The $500,000 payment to Hess on expense of dredging and diking Krause Lagoon. 3) The cost of Government services (schools, housing, hospitals, etc.) to the 90% of Hess employees imported to fill jobs. (Author's emphasis.) 4) The costs of social problems created by aliens (crime, health, etc.). 5) The loss of property tax revenue on land now exempt from taxes. 6) The effect of ecological disturbances caused by dredging, water pollution, and air pollution. 7) The disadvantage to U.S. domestic producers from competition with low cost, duty free Hess p r o d u c t s . The third entry is particularly significant because it shows Hess' disregard for the welfare of the Crucians. In the attachment to the memorandum, Ross cal culated that Hess had paid $5,482,500 into the Conserva tion Fund by November, 1970, and had received $24,833,910 ^°Ibid.. p. 1. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 389 in subsidies, $3,001,670 in property tax exemptions, and, "...exemptions from other taxes, the total of which is not known."61 Considering the many other exemptions and benefits which were granted, the unknown total must have been a bonanza. The power of Hess Oil to get concessions for the local government was, then, practically unlimited. According to O'Neill, "A careful reading of the nine laws and two resolutions passed by the legislature during the Paiewonsky-Ottley period in support of the Hess proposal can only lead to the belief that the Hess lawyers had a hand in their d r a f t i n g . "^2 Before leaving the subject, however, one more example should be mentioned because it is so blatant. Beginning in 1968 there was a long dispute between Hess and the Comptroller over the amount of the import duty subsidy. Hess took the position that the entire amount of the import duty it paid should have been refunded while the Comptroller's view was that the subsidy should have been net of collection costs. ^^Ibid., Attachment, p. 2. ^^O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins, p. 121. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 390 about 10 percent of the total duty. The deduction for costs of collection was standard for firms receiving the subsidy. Between 1965 and September 1970 this discrepancy amounted to $1 ,6 1 3 ,280.^3 Hess was finally forced to pay back the overpayments in June, 1971, after a long struggle. The interesting part of this controversy for this study concerns Hess' action when the Government Comp troller's claim was first presented in the Fall of 1968. Upon hearing that the Comptroller was going to ask for return of the overpayments, Hess got a bill introduced and passed by the legislature which allowed Hess to keep the full amount of the duty in the future and retroactively to 1965.^^ The law was clearly void because, in the opinion of the Attorney General, "...it is a special law specifically prohibited by Section 1471 of Title 48 of the United States Code. Act 2360(the law, WJK) is a special law of the prohibited class in that it not only provides special treatment in the collection of a tax for territorial purposes, but it also grants an exclusive ^^Letter from Ross to Price, Attachment, p. 4. ^^Ibid., p. 3. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 391 privlledge to a corporation."65 since the law was so obviously inconsistent with federal law it was eventually disallowed. However, one can only marvel at the clout of a corporation which exacted the original exemptions and subsidies, proceeded to ignore its commitments (the employment quota and still not yet built petrochemical plant), and still had the power to have such unheard of special legislation enacted. Possibly the only greater marvel was the eagerness of the local politicians to sell their people down the river. It would probably not be very useful to continue with further examples of the influence of capitalists on local government policy. The above examples were described to give the reader a feel for the process (which will also come up in a discussion of conflict of interest and a cultural analysis of the 1960's) by which these results come about. There are other ways to get such a feel, however. Many observers have commented on the power of the business community to influence govern ment policy. John Kirwan, acting director of the Office Territories of the Interior Department, wrote a letter to ^^Ibid., Attachment, p. 4. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 392 Governor Paiewonsky in 1965 deploring the lack of action on alien problems by the local government. In one passage he alluded to the power of local business interests to mobilize the local government in times of potential danger. As he put it, I know that the problems on the $200 duty allowance, and the liquor exemption, and the watch and woollen problems (all important subjects to Island business interests, WJK) are technically the concern of the Customs Bureau, and the Commerce Department, and the Treasury Department. Yet the pressure from the Virgin Islands people, legislature, and government upon such agencies has been un remit tant, creative, and successful. The Virgin Islands just wouldn't take 'no' for an answer in those cases, and couldn't care less what the regulations, the old law, or the old established limitations were. If they got in the way of progress they had to go, even if it meant months of footwork here in Washington, and a series of new laws from the Congress.66 D. Creque, a local historian and current commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Renewal, has stated flatly that local politics is controlled by big business.67 This may be an exaggeration given the split between a continental economic elite and a native political elite; however, in that conversation with this writer Mr. Creque ^^Quoted in Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 228. 67interview with author, February 9, 1972. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 393 was able to defend his position vigorously. Objections to the thesis of effective influence by the capitalist class on government are often heard, but they are usually self-serving, coming as they do from politicians, officials of the local Chamber of Commerce and the like. It would be a grave impropriety for such people to admit their real influence to a questioning young social scientist with a tape recorder. In fact, a number of lower-level native government workers rather forcefully agreed that the influence of the business community over government policy was very great, but would not freely express such opinions until assured that they would not be quoted directly or their names used. Whether such fears of censure or reprisal were real is difficult to say, but this happened more than once and only on the question of business influence or related topics. In any case, informed and reasonably objective Island opinion often, although not always, sees a strong influence of business interests in government policy. A topic closely related to private influence on government policy is conflict of interest. The idea that a person's role in government and his role in business can Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 394 conflict is much less well developed in the Virgin Islands than it is on the mainland. A lawyer consultant for the planning board who advised on cases in which he had a direct interest would be regarded by many islanders as a smart fellow rather than as corrupt. Examples of con flict of interest are particularly common for a number of reasons. First of all, the participation of business men in the local government is very high and it is only natural that they be very conscious of government policies affecting their operations. Second, there is the pervasive mental identification of business and the social interest. If what is good fc * business is good for the Virgin Islands, the utilization of government for private ends becomes more acceptable. Third is the traditional closeness of government and business. We have seen how the local businessmen derived a good deal of their trade from government purchases in the past. With a budget above $100,000,000 and the power to make important tax concessions, "good relations" with the local government are avidly sought by any intelligent capitalist. Given these general conditions, this particular ideological import - conflict of interest - had failed to make much Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. headway in the Virgin Islands. The stories of corruption, although difficult to document, are many. The cornering of the market on government legal notices by a powerful newspaper editor-senator, the planning of an obviously ecologically disasterous jetport on land owned by prominent politicians, the placing of a new high school on land bought from another prominent politician despite a fuel storage area next door, the ignoring of a plan to develop light industry on a piece of federally-owned land recently deeded over to the local government and the sub stitution of a hodgepodge of private business develop ments - many of which are owned by politicians - and so forth.68 Both the press and private conversations are taken up by these and like incidents for extraordinary amounts of space and time. This atmosphere makes it relatively easy to ignore the citizenry's welfare in favor of personal gain and special interest among politically and economically powerful cliques and is one more area where common interests are frustrated. This writer has commented earlier on the extra ordinary size and growth of the local government bureaucracy. ^^O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins, pp. 97-99. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 396 but the reasons for this have not been analyzed. The area is important since it brings together a number of issues which have been previously discussed. There can be little doubt that some of the expansion reflected legitimate and long unmet needs of the community. Public services have never been good in the Virgin Islands and the raising of these services' standards, the institution of necessary new ones, the unavoidable duplication attendant on running a government on three separate islands, and the rapid population growth of the decade all made an expansion of the personnel and functions of the local government both necessary and desirable. Nevertheless, the rate and type of expansion which occurred apparently went considerably beyond what was called for. There were obvious political dividends to be had for the Ottley-Paiewonsky group. Their regime was the first executive-legislative political machine in Island history. A classic way to build up such a grouping and insure loyalty is patronage, and patronage is evident in the way many new jobs were created. Numerous new unclassified positions were created which had the effect of denying civil service protections to holders of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 397 new jobs. At the same time other posts were simply transferred out of civil service jurisdiction.69 This was a gross but effective way of obtaining political loyalty, and with the explosion in local government tax collections, the positions could be created without the embarrassment of instituting new taxes to pay for them. But there were other, more subtle forces at work too. Government service was desirable for the natives because they accord greater status to white-collar work over both blue-collar and service employment, and most govern ment jobs are white-collar. Also, since the local bureaucracy is in the hands of the natives, a native job seeker would naturally be drawn to such an organization more than to the continental-dominated private sector. More strongly, it has been suggested that this growth is, "...another device in his (the native's, WJK) struggle to maintain his social position against the growing invasion of the non-native 'outsiders.' It is not so much a bogus state socialism as it is an expression of the interethnic s t r u g g l e . whether one considers this ^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 329. ^°Ibid., p. 160. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 398 an aspect of ethnic - race - struggle as Lewis does or an aspect of class struggle is of some importance but is not crucial. In either case, it can be seen as a socio-political response on the part of the natives to what they regard as a loss of patrimony. Indeed, the thought is often expressed by natives that the local government is "our" last refuge from encroaching con tinentals and aliens. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER IX CULTURE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY - 1970 The goal of this chapter, an analysis of cultural and psychological aspects of Virgin Island society, is much the same as the previous section on cultural history. That chapter tried to delineate the evolu tion of the psycho-cultural complex while this chapter will try to describe and explain that complex as of 1970. This analysis also has two subsidiary objectives. It attempts to contrast the present with the previous period and tries to explain why certain observed dif ferences have occurred. It also describes the heightened level of cultural struggle, its relation to class struggle and the reasons why that cultural conflict has become so much more important in recent years. A. General Continuity in these Areas In examining cultural and psychological traits of Virgin Islanders, and here only the natives are being considered except where otherwise noted, the continuity 399 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 400 from the 1920's and 1930's to the 1960's are more striking than the changes. One could simply say that significant change in these areas is not to be expected in so short a time. Undeniably, cultural and psycho logical traits often long outlive the conditions which gave them birth. But there are other reasons for con tinuity than simple inertia. After all, we have seen that Virgin Island society was always culture-poor and considering the great economic, social, political and ideological changes which have taken place over the last 20 years one could reasonably think that signifi cant changes in cultural and psychological traits would be taking place. Of course, there have been alterations which will be pointed out. However, in Virgin Island culture it is the continuity which stands out. B. The Specifics of Continuity and Change Despite the efforts of many people, the arts still occupy a very minor role in Island life. This is particularly true of native art. Local crafts have almost totally died out, and the performing arts are largely imported. Lewisohn notes that all concerts sponsored by the St. Croix Concert Society featured imported Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 401 performers and calypso, which may seem native to the con tinental, but is in reality Trinidadian. Even Carnival is now largely planned by continental residents for the benefit of the tourist trade.1 All the reasons mentioned earlier for the lack of a strong local tradition in the arts are still operative, and despite an increasing interest in the subject, the idea of folklore as a saleable tourist product often brings a profit motive which is almost inevitably damaging to real artistic development. In religion, most change has taken place outside the dominant conservative Protestant churches which have always made up the backbone of Virgin Islands religious life. Probably the most important change in the tradi tional churches has been the growing racial self-segrega tion, a trend noted in other areas. Thus, the Moravian, Lutheran and Episcopal churches have become more native and black over the years while the Dutch Reformed has gotten a reputation as a white peoples' church.^ ^F. Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (Holly wood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970), p. 412. ^G.K. Lewis, The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilli put (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), p. 267. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 402 Probably the most important development, however, has been the evolution of more heterodox Protestant sects such as the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pilgrim Holiness and Methodist (which is, of course, more doc- trinally orthodox) whose memberships are overwhelmingly alien. One reason for this high alien membership is that these were the churches the aliens belonged to in their own islands, but there is another reason. The established churches have been quite insensitive to the social needs of the aliens while the newer sects are very active in providing many of the social services and moral support not given by other Virgin Island institu tions. This silence on the part of institutions profes sing Christian beliefs is suggestive. It parallels the general attitude of Virgin Islanders who view the aliens with a good deal of fear and contempt because of their low class status and their foreign-ness. Consequently, it seems that the inactivity of the traditional churches reflects the discrimination which all other classes exercise against the aliens. The more formal dress patterns of the natives have persisted. As mentioned earlier, this sometimes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 403 results in fairly ludicrous contrasts such as when a continental bureaucrat will be attired in a colorful open-neck sport shirt and slacks while his native colleagues and subordinates will all be wearing dark suits, white shirts and ties. In the earlier period this was a case of class emulation but since the ruling class has changed so much, one might legitimately ask why this custom persists. The reasons, it seems, are fairly straightforward and affect other areas covered in this chapter. That is, although there has been great change in the mode of production and the concomitant class structure, many of these seemingly obsolete customs and attitudes are consistent with and serve a function within the changed forces and relations of production. So, although the conditions in which they existed have changed as has their function, their outward form re mains the same. So it is with dress. To begin with, the old families still have some social influence and so some of the old class emulation continues. At the same time, the old prejudice against manual labor is strong and the white collar uniform is a badge that a person does not work with his hands. Another reason is more complex and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 404 relates to what was said above about new functions for old customs. While the old custom was based on class emula tion, the same form serves a class purpose in a new way. It serves to maintain a native middle class identity in the face of the massive cultural assault from the main land. As previously mentioned, the natives harbor feelings of exclusiveness toward the continentals. The conservative mode of dress becomes an outward symbol that, "Yes, you may live here but we native Virgin Islanders remain distinct." This conservatism in dress becomes an aspect of the struggle to preserve a Virgin Islands which is "ours," a way to react against the pervasive feeling of loss of patrimony. Forms of marriage and family life have also re mained quite similar to those described in the previous section on cultural history. There still is a matri- focal pattern in family life. Women (especially in the lower class) tend to have children early and by several successive men; women are still very active in the labor force; sex is still not talked about between parents and children; men still value fatherhood over husbandhood; and fathering a large number of children is more a reason Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 405 for male pride than having a large number of sexual con quests. 3 Here again the reasons for these phenomena, essentially the influence of slavery on family structure and sex life, still shape the lives of islanders. This was the cause discussed in the previous cultural history chapter. But we might also ask a similar question here to the one asked concerning dress; why do these phenomena survive under a changed mode of production? As far as the place of women is concerned, there is both a positive push toward an independent stance and a matrifocal family and a negative pull preventing the development of the middle-class suburban housewife type on the mainland model. On the positive side, there is little discrimina tion against women in their professional lives, either legal or customary. Weinstein comments that, "Men in their turn are tolerant of women's accomplishments and are not prejudiced against them in business, government or the professions. Supplementing this is the high demand for 3r .H. Dalton, Mothers and Children: A Study- of Parent-Child Relationships in St. Thomas (Charlotte Amalie, unpublished, no date), pp. 91-92. ^Edwin A. Weinstein, Cultural Aspects of Delusion (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), p. 78. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 406 female labor which makes women economically self-sufficient. Furthermore, the child-centeredness of family life and the tradition of a sort of extended family on the mother's side make it rather easy for a woman worker to make a satis factory childcare arrangement with a relative or close friend or, for the more well-to-do, get alien domestic help. On the negative side is the continuing problem of poor housing which makes the investment of time in housewifery relatively unsatisfying. Thus, there was little or nothing in the particular alterations in the mode of production occasioned by the rapid economic growth which were glaringly inconsistent with the old female lifestyle. The secondary role of men in the family and their emphasis on procreation was seen as an aspect of the heritage of slavery and the experience of migration in search of work. These general influences are still operative, especially the former, but the basic reason for the male role remaining traditional is probably the economic and psychological independence of women more than anything else. This economic independence has already been discussed; what has not been mentioned, however, is that native women value their independence very highly. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 407 In his psychological study of the Virgin Islands, E.A. Weinstein pointed out that women do not defer to men as a group.5 These two facts, plus the fact that illegit imacy carries little or no social stigma - especially in the lower class - make for few pressures on a woman to crave the "security" of the male-centerea American household. Weinstein goes on to relate that many lower class women regard marriage as a form of male domination since it gives men certain legal and customary rights which the woman need not grant in a consensual u n i o n . 6 That it is the women who actively maintain their in dependence is shown by the significant number of Virgin Islands men who marry in the States, and who, when they return home, almost always set up a household on the mainland m o d e l . 7 Furthermore, there is often considerable reluctance on the part of the French and Puerto Rican men to marry native girls on the grounds that they are "immoral." While immorality in their eyes partly refers to informality about pre- and extramarital sex, there 5Ibid., p. 73. ^Ibid., p. 74. ^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 242. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 408 can be little doubt that the failure of native women to accept a "woman’s place" is a very important factor. In regard to psychological traits, the strong aversion to manual labor continues. Even though develop ment has been rapid, there has been little reason for this prejudice to die out since few natives are forced into taking manual jobs. Manual jobs usually mean alien jobs, and this even extends into the local govern ment. More than 300 aliens were employed by the local government in 1966 but only in the most menial positions such as the nightsoil brigade, janitorial work and as highway laborers.8 The natives have had the luxury of keeping their prejudices by simply importing aliens to do the dirty work. The net effect is to increase the pre judice since manual labor is not only associated with lower classness but now also with foreign-ness. Deference, from children to parents and from employees to employers or supervisors, is still strongly demanded and highly valued. There seems to be little change here from the earlier period, and there seems to be little in the process of development which would lead ^Ibid., p. 221. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 409 to change. Deference, it will be remembered, was a society-wide and not a class trait among natives. There have been additions to the top and bottom of the class structure, but within the native group itself, the tradi tional upper class still commands the most respect and so on down the line. As Dalton put it in discussing the native group, "The pecking order is quite clear with certain government and professional people and a few old families being at the top."9 And, needless to say, those "government and professional people" tend to be from the traditional upper and middle classes. The ego-centrism and hyper-individualism of Virgin Islanders which so impressed Campbell 30 years ago seems as prominent today as then. As Dalton points out, "St. Thomians are a proud people and justifiably so if one looks only at the great advances made in social legislation...But their pride extends quite beyond such accomplishments. There is a pride of autonomy, of being able to 'go it alone' and of not having to 'take anything' from anybody."10 And Lewis relates the problems of ^Dalton, Parent“Child Relationships in St. Thomas, p. 97. l O l b i d . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 410 Tortola (one of the British Virgins and similar to the American Virgins) where they have no boy scout troop because everybody wanted to be scoutmaster, no community band because everybody wanted to be bandmaster, or even native policemen because every native wanted to be police inspector.11 From what has been said about the type and style of economic and social development in the Islands during the last 15 years, it is probable that individualism is at an even higher pitch than in the 1940's. Rapidly advancing affluence through tourism with its fast-buck aura and the concomitant invasion of mainland middle class values through tourism and the national media have certainly done nothing to curb the already well developed tendency toward hyper-individualism. In fact, it is probably the excesses of possessive in dividualist economic development which has spawned what little reaction that there is against hyper-individualism. These reactions - Black Power and cultural struggle - are primarily based on the loss of patrimony feeling so prevalent among the natives and the rate and form of economic development contributed greatly to such feelings. ^^Lewis, A Caribbean Lilliput, p. 258. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 411 As in the earlier period, class consciousness continues to be an important trait of the native per sonality. The two most important psychological studies of the latest period, Dalton's Mothers and Children and Weinstein's Cultural Aspects of Delusion, are quite explicit on the point although Weinstein takes the strange position that this consciousness does not reflect any actual class divisions. G.K. Lewis also agrees. "Class consciousness is still part of the psychological make-up...He (the lower class native) continues to avoid, if possible, situations in which he may seem inferior, a difficult exercise since his class position forces him into many strained social r e l a t i o n s . "^2 More detailed relationships of class, race and cultural consciousness will be discussed in connection with certain important contemporary issues in the following pages. C. Cultural Issues and Their Relation to Development There are a number of issues, largely cultural in nature, which are prominent in both public and private discussion of the Virgin Islands' current and future 12Ibid., p. 161. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 412 socio-economic development. This section explains their origins, content and significance. The goal is to pro vide another dimension of understanding of Virgin Island society through an examination of some issues which pre occupy Islanders. The issues are Black Power, "bi lingualism" (the use of the West Indian dialect, some times called "calypso" or "creole" English) in the schools, and the general rebirth of Virgin Island cultural con sciousness . Probably the first and possibly the most important question which can be asked about all this is: In a society which had never been particularly concerned with cultural issues, this writer has called it culture-poor, why is there a sudden birth of interest - a new cultural consciousness - forming around the issues just mentioned? Answers must be incomplete and highly tentative by their very nature, but some causal factors can be plausibly suggested. Being such a small society and living mainly by commerce and agriculture for export, the Virgin Islands have always been particularly open to outside ideas, and with the flood of mainland mass media and the large Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 413 immigration of aliens (who prefer, by the way, to be called "off-is landers "), this I isî truer: than ever. Some of these ideas are those of black pride, negritude and black cultural renewal as they are found and expressed in both the Caribbean and the mainland U.S.A. Such ideas naturally strike a responsive chord in many natives, especially the youth, and the outward trappings of these movements - dashikis. Black Power handshakes and the like - are common. A more general imported in fluence which stimulates interest in Virgin Islands culture is the reawakening of interest in local or im migrant cultures on the mainland. Recent years have seen r. strong push for ethnic identification on many levels. Black Studies, Polish Studies, Jewish Studies, and Italian Studies, a spate of civil rights organiza tions modelled on the N.A.A.C.P. and the Anti-Defama tion League of B'nai B'rith, new interest in "old . country" festivals and fraternal organizations, all these and more are examples of ethnic identification which are sweeping the U.S.A. All this would naturally affect the Virgin Islands, possibly more than the mainland for the additional reason that there is a good deal of money in it. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 414 On the one hand there is the emphasis on the "Danishness" of the Islands, a so-called foreign flavor which is played up to help attract tourists, while on the other hand there are federal monies available for certain kinds of cultural activities. As Lewis somewhat archly put it, "There is probably much truth, then, in the opinion of those critics who feel that the newly developed fashionable interest in Virgin Islands culture is not to be seen as a genuine conversion of attitudes but as simply a self- interested response of the mulatto elites to the fact that in the last few years lucrative federal funds have become available for such exercises, and both of the reports so far published have been, in fact, papers prepared as conditional requirements for the receipt of such funds."13 In a period of such rapid socio-economic change as the Virgin Islands have experienced in the last 15 years, residents can literally see the changes occurring before their eyes and many of these changes can be included under the broadest meaning of "culture." There are changes in young people attendant on their higher education, increased exposure to mainland media and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 415 upgraded family economic status; there are physical changes which have cultural significance such as the phase-out of sugar cultivation on St. Croix and the proliferation of suburban-type real estate developments over the once open landscape; there are a host of behavioral changes in people brought about by the presence of large numbers of tourists and aliens ; one could go on and on. The point here is that this rapid change naturally excites feelings of nostalgia for the good old days and the good old ways no matter how wretched those days and ways may have been. There are also compelling negative reasons why people express their dissatisfactions in terms of culture rather than politics - especially class and race politics. We have already noted that little or no political program is presented in class terms. This was ascribed partially to the fact that Virgin Island politics and rhetoric have basically stemmed from the American model where such analysis and rhetoric are not practiced. Earlier, we asserted that, "...the statement of the problem (the dislocations and dissatisfactions caused by the form and rate of economic growth) in class terms automatically suggests solutions which the natives them selves would not be able to entertain." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 416 The problem, of course, is that development - particularly capitalist, tourist-based development con trolled by continentals - in the Virgin Islands has either caused or exacerbated the major problems of the society, and to confront these problems is to begin to disbelieve in that development and its ideological trappings. But this is not all. Any important criti cism of the Islands’ problems points the way to the subversive idea that development as it is presently practiced has serious deficiencies, so serious that to rationally confront them means a call for really signif icant socio-economic change. And, we might-add, the kinds of change which run directly counter to the narrowly perceived interests of the most powerful local groups. So, rather than identify and attack these problems directly, most natives - to say nothing of resident continentals - prefer to deal in more manageable and visible "cultural" issues. The real problems of the Islands are intimately bound up with business. Most Island business is specula tive, fast-buck, and quite oblivious of its social and ecological costs in its pursuit of profits before the boom Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 417 ends, A rational program to deal with these negative effects would entail strong measures. Comprehensive planning and strict zoning of which there is a scan dalous lack, the radical modification of the tax ex emption and subsidy system, the radical upgrading of labor standards and wages (particularly for aliens), con servation of the unique physical (both natural and man- made) attributes of the Virgins, and, possibly most im portant, the meaningful integration of natives into the private sector. These are important, even necessary, steps to the creation of a firm economic base for the Virgin Islands, a base that would be responsive rather than exploitative. But the chances of these measures being adopted are very poor. Not only is there the direct opposition of almost all sectors of "responsible" opinion to such interferences in their "rights" (pocket- books) , but there is the argument that if the Virgin Islands adopted such measures the business interests, especially tourist industry, would be transferred to other, more hospitable Caribbean locations. Such an argument is patently self-serving, but there is probably a good deal of truth to it. Many Caribbean islands have Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 418 beexi very receptive to the dregs of international cor porate capitalism in the vain hope that the attraction of the seemingly glittering tourist complex will help alleviate their often horrendous problems of poverty and unemployment. One can easily afford to be critical of such naivete when one is a radical, more or less comfortably ensconced in a North American university. For sincere liberal - and even Marxist - politicians in the Caribbean, such criticism is a very expensive luxury. In any case there are almost no groups willing to advocate such measures, especially among the native elite and the continental business interests. At base, these two groups see the tourist boom as the goose that laid the golden eggs, and any interference with the poultry is taboo. With this in mind we come to the important cul tural issues mentioned above, and we come to them with the rather sad conclusion that no matter what their respective merits - and there are often many - they partake of a certain escapism, a kind of arguing about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin while the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 419 barbarians are attacking the monastery walls. A good example of this sort of issue is that of "bilingualism" in the public schools. This problem has direct analogs on the mainland regarding the education of Spanish-Amerleans and inner-city blacks and it is important to realize that the issue operates on two levels simultaneously. Simply put, the question is whether it is better to conduct school solely in standard English or more efficacious to mix standard English with Spanish (in the case of Spanish-Americans) or the quite linguistically distinct dialects of American blacks or native Virgin Islanders. At first one might think this a straightforward question and would ask, "Which system gives the best results, i.e., under which regime do the students leam faster and more?" If this were the only question the answer would be simple. "There is significant evidence of faster and deeper rates of learning in bilingual schools." But, there are much more important issues here (for the adults, at any rate) than what is best for children's learning rates. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 420 The basic conflict is really over the question of assimilation, loss of separate cultural identity, versus nationalism, or the preservation of that identity within the American (Anglo-Saxon) mainstream culture. The former position is summed up crudely by the common observation, "They're Americans now, let them speak (standard) English." It is the position of those who believe in the melting- pot as a moral and ethical good, and is often most loudly proclaimed by those immigrants who have most recently arrived - "arrived" not only in the physical sense of im migration since Virgin Islanders, Chicanos and blacks are hardly recent immigrants, but also "arrived" in an eco nomic and social sense. Thus, among the groups just men tioned, the most vociferous advocates of education ex clusively in standard English are the nouveau riche (or even nouveau petite bourgeois) strata of these groups. Such a course has been consistently followed by the edu cational authorities in the Virgin Islands. Only standard English is used and the models, curricula, methods, and even personnel (many of the teachers are continentals due to a shortage of native teachers) are practically indistinguishable from what would be found in stateside Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 421 schools. The Virgin Islands' educational system is consequently a prime example of the wave of American cultural imperialism which has swept over the Islands, and been on the whole eagerly welcomed, since their purchase and especially since the mid-1950's. The "bilingualists" in the Virgin Islands are still a small minority but seem to be rapidly gaining strength against strong opposition from the educational power structure. That same structure, incidentally, has not opposed the institution of Spanish bilingualism in schools serving significant numbers of Puerto Rican children, because in the eyes of the authorities bi lingualism for Puerto Ricans is a different sort of problem. After all, Spanish is a recognized language and the English these students leam is standard. 14 In the case of the native children, creole English is looked upon as an undesirable form of speech rather than a legitimate linguistic form. ^^.A. Hill, Sr., Rise to Recognition (Private Printing, 1971), p. 167. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 422 The arguments of the "hilinguists" operate on the same two levels. On solid educational grounds they point out that creole English is linguistically distinct and to ignore the fact of differing psycho-linguistic modes of thought and speech is to risk serious confusion in the student's mind which makes learning difficult. The actual argument is rather technical, relying on some sophisticated educational and linguistic theories and an equally sophisticated body of empirical evidence. Suffice it to say that on purely educational-technical grounds it is strong and well supported. But, the primary thrust of the issue is one of cultural nationalism, a way to differentiate and preserve the native group from continental dominance. As we have seen, this battle has been lost on the socio-economic front and so cultural struggle of this sort becomes a kind of surrogate for the radical nationalist struggle going on in other parts of the Caribbean and the Third World at large. Black Power is another aspect of the same general, essentially escapist, type opposition through cultural struggle. In the Virgin Islands, Black Power is an idea which is used more as a handy label than as a political Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 423 ideology. It is often used as a support for the Establish ment as when V. Hill goes into a long passage describing the recent development of the Sunny Isle Shopping Center on St. Croix as an example of "Black Power." He pays no mind to the fact that the developers, the de Chabert family, are members of the local Establishment with ex tensive land and other interests; nor does he pay any mind that the physical design and layout of the shopping center are aesthetic and cultural insults; but most of all, he finds it quite possible to describe the development of a shopping center in which the black community at large has no more investment or control than they would have if the center had been developed by a continental as a prime example of Black P o w e r . 15 Coming from an intelligent and experienced native writer like Hill, such nonsense is practically unbelievable. One may charitably surmise that he really doesn't believe it but that examples of initiation and control of projects in the new economy by the masses of natives simply do not exist and the Sunny Isle Shopping Center was the best he could do. ^^Ibid., p. 126. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 424 Black Power can be used as a smear tactic in defense of the Establishment. In the first gubernatorial election Cyril King was the victim of a whispering cam paign among the resident continentals to the effect that he was some sort of Black Power radical. He wasn't, although he may have been a bit to the left of the other two candidates. As Hill and others correctly point out, however. Black Power in its radical mainland sense of cultural and political renaissance combined with a form of black socialism has made very little headway.1^ The reasons for this are not difficult to see. Racially, Black Power founders on the native's contempt and fear of the alien masses. Politically, the structure of privilege and patronage have co-opted most of the existing and potential radical native leadership. Culturally, there is the still wholehearted embrace of the mainland "way of life" by many natives and the impotence of others in the face of the strength of the mainland cultural presence. And economically there is the fait accompli of continental control of the economy and the keenly felt ^^Ibid., p. 125. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 425 insecurity of the native elite that economic conflict would be damaging to the all-important tourist trade. Thus, Black Power in the Virgin Islands is expressed in its conservative. Establishment-supportive form, or simply ignored when expressed in its more radical mainland or Caribbean forms. Closely related to the issues of "bilingualism" and Black Power is the more general unease at the "americanization" of the Virgins which is a more specific aspect of the "loss of patrimony" theme mentioned earlier. An example of the friction caused by "americanization" is the privatization of the beaches. As in many other Caribbean islands, the natives prefer to live in the hills above the ocean rather than close to the water. This is reasonable since the hills have stronger breezes and less mosquitoes than the shore areas. There is also less danger from high seas during hurricane season. Given the historically low population and preference for inland living, plus the fact that natives are generally not as watersport-conscious as North Americans, beaches have traditionally been freely open to all and beach use has been considered a right by the natives. With the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 426 development of condominiums and beachfront resorts, how ever, most beaches have been turned into private property in actual practice. Consequently, on St. Thomas there are now only two decent public beaches, one right next to Harry S. Truman Airport. "’he restriction of beach rights, which the continental developers took as a routine aspect of purchase, has been very disturbing to the natives who now find it difficult to find a place to swim even though it is impossible to be more than a mile or two from the sea anywhere in the Islands. Even though there was a campaign to open the beaches, in cluding a petition drive and some demonstrations, the legislature passed a bill which was little more than a request to owners to open their f a c i l i t i e s .18 Thus, this very obvious irritant remains practically unchanged. Just taking examples from recent writing on the Islands also illustrates the growing unease about American- style tourist development - the gut feeling that things have gone awry. V. Hill's 1967 book is entitled, A Golden Jubilee; Virgin Islanders on the Go Under the American ^^E.A. O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 82. ^% b i d ., p. 83. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 427 Flag. Just three years later, he called a second book covering similar ground but stressing the African and Caribbean aspects of the local history. Rise To Recogni tion. By 1972, O'Neill felt it appropriate to call his book The Rape of the American Virgins. Despite the incredible c o m of the first title and the incredible crudity of the third, the progression is clear and the amount of dissatisfaction in the texts closely parallels what one would expect from the titles. This general theme of distorted development and cultural inundation is also everpresent in conversation with Islanders. Three professors at the local college, one native and two continental, agreed that the Islands were "A perfect study in maldevelopment." A present senator and former governor agreed that the old ways were dying out, although they did not think their value was much more than charming and picturesque customs. Probably the most perceptive comments came from a person who was both insider and outsider at the same time. He is a young continental social worker who has been living in St. Thomas for many years and is married to a native. He pointed out that the young natives cannot identify with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 428 either the new or the old; the old because of new affluence, education, and cultural influences ; the new because that style was predominantly white and con tinental, The only alternative seemed to him to be a kind of aping of the hip, "superfly" mainland black style with its overtones of hustling and, at times, crime. This cultural clash combined with economic inequality, lack of opportunities, and monopolization of the lucrative areas of the economy by continentals, plus the unique social and psychological pressures posed by the aliens, seemed to him a dangerously unstable brew. That the brew has at least partially boiled over since can hardly be considered extraordinary. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER X CONCLUSION "Conclusion" is, of course, the place for an author to evaluate his efforts in a reasonably objective and dispassionate way. This writer will attempt that here, first dealing with some fairly straightforward issues and clarifications and then going on to the extent to which the study may be called successful. The author believes the static-dynamic method was a good approach for this study. The stop-action (static) aspect, when combined with the dynamic side of historical materialism provided a framework where growth and change could be accounted for and the impor tant parts of the base and superstructure, and the links between them, analyzed. Whether the results were fruitful is obviously important and is treated below. However, the method itself was very helpful in ordering and analyzing the material. It "felt right" intellectually and was, in our opinion, a worth while and creative approach to the question posed in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 430 Chapter I. That question was "Why did this happen?" and the static-dynamic method was important in whatever success we have had in answering that question. Chapter I contained a critique of the Stalinist version of historical materialism. In that critique we followed Sartre's criticism that "situating" a person or movement was an unwarranted oversimplification of reality which leads to serious errors in the analysis of human action and can ultimately contribute to bad politics and even to human tragedy. This dissertation hardly has much potential to contribute significantly to human tragedies. However, scholarly errors are bad enough and so struggle had to be waged against the tendency we all have to be lazy and to situate rather than analyze. Since the most insidious kind of labelling can arise through the use of specialized and obscure jargon, part of the effort to avoid situating was to present the study's arguments in as straightforward a language as possible. Although this was done partially because the author has a general dislike of jargon and also partially for the reader's sake, the main purpose of avoiding a more technical and "marxian" vocabulary Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 431 was to minimize the opportunity for situating. The problem which can arise in this context is that the reader may miss the application of the method without the benefit of phrases such as "the base element 'x' relates to superstructure element 'y' in the fol lowing ways..." sprinkled through the text. In any good study the method forms a skeleton, much like the steel frame of a skyscraper which is not often visible but which is essential to hold up the building. With the exception of the two chapters where the static part of the method was formally applied, historical materialism itself is rarely referred to explicitly. There is only the actual analysis. The writer feels the analysis is thoroughly historical materialist; the reader will judge for himself. There are no "conclusions" in a conventional sense to be drawn. Actually, what has been tried is something rather ambitious - to "illuminate and explain" the development of a society. Thus, problems arise in evaluating the study. On the plus side there are the valuable qualifications of the readers who have had experience in evaluating dissertations. On the minus side, few readers have much knowledge of Virgin Island Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 432 history and so it becomes difficult to vouch for the accuracy of the facts as they are presented here. These are relatively minor problems. The biggest problem can be most easily formulated as a question: how important is historical materialism and how useful was it in explaining socio-economic evolution in the U.S. Virgin Islands? While it is quite possible that whatever success we have had in explanation has come in spite of rather than because of historical materialism, we do not feel such was the case. From the beginning we have felt that historical materialism provided valuable tools in at least three areas. First, there was what could be called the historical materialist scheme. This is the most well known part of historical materialism and comprises such things as forces and rela tions of production, base and superstructure, class, and so forth. Second, was the abstractive or progressive regressive method which provides the way to get down to basics and then build back to surface reality. This method also provides the opportunity to take account of mediation and interrelations. The stop-action method was one part of this abstractive method. Third is a much more general tool of seeing social development as a unified organic process which largely conforms to broad dialectical processes of contradiction and constant flux. This writer personally found all three aspects of historical materialism very helpful. The first provided Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 433 a set of "variables” to work with, and after "specification" to those variables was at least tentatively accomplished it was possible to use them throughout the case-study to good effect. The abstractive method was also crucial. We agree with Witt-Hansen that it is both a scientific and powerful tool of analysis. Finally, the sensitivity to the dialectical nature of social change was important because it tied the whole process together. It was par ticularly relevant to seeing the overall drift of change and to being conscious of the mediations problem. This author believes that historical materialism was most useful and fruitful in dealing with economic, social and political development. The application to culture was distinctly less satisfying. However, the question of why the chapter on culture was not more il luminating is hard to answer. At one extreme is the pos sibility that historical materialism is simply not well suited to the examination of elements so far removed from the base. At another extreme is the possibility that our relative lack of expertise in anthropological and psy chological matters is to blame. These two factors could also be present together in varying degrees. This problem is one which cannot be solved by this writer. Marxists believe that a social formation should not be judged by its own consciousness ; in the same spirit a writer should not make such judgments about his own work. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 434 Some observations may be of interest, however. For example, for the practitioner of historical materialism there is less and less to "lean on" the further he gets from the base. This is so because the some variables (class, productive forces, property relations) are much better defined and have been used more in analysis than have cultural and psychological variables. Then, of course, there is the mediations problem. On the other hand, there is no reason this writer can see why the abstractive method and dialectical outlook should not be just as useful in analysis of superstructural elements as any others. Thus, the problem can only be stated here. What is really needed is a critical comparative review of the best of Marxian and non-Marxian literature on culture and social psychology. While this still may not give a definitive answer, it would probably shed some light. Such a review is, of course, outside the scope of the present work. Given the limitations of this writer's talents, we feel that historical materialism has been shown to provide a fruitful framework for inquiry into social development. Four years ago, the proposal for this dissertation stated. First of all, our method was originally put forward primarily with reference to the study of classical capitalist development in Europe, and through the years this has remained the primary subject of study by the method's practitioners. If, however, we believe with Sartre that historical materialism is the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 435 most universally applicable means of analysis evolved in the industrial capitalist era, it should not lose its explanatory power when applied to a non-european, non-industrial, and colonial society. Thus, one of my tasks will be to see if, indeed, it does retain that power. We believe that power was retained. Lapses in explanation are probably better seen as a lack of perception on the writer's part, not as irremediable faults of historical materialism. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ~ p gg 'S âg ' 35 S|s s s| S llîSgS Ss S3 i s| 3 3 3 -f !I s|§, «s I s| 3 35-5' ! 53 % « 5 s| ; I l- P r 5! Ijl'SPIII 5| 3g |3 |p = |- !p55-5l't §1 3^¥mi !! 5'H ! # = !Î ïl piîslllîF 5Î S p E -M 'si 5 p l!5ps II !3 P |!35|ll3P II I Miiifi! 1 i l l i i i i i i I Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A - 2 APPENDIX TABLE 2 POPULATION OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE U.S. 1773 TO 1970 BY RACE Percent Mixed & Percent Mixed & Years Total Negro White Other White Other& 1970 62,468 45,309 11,339 5,820 72.5 18.2 9.3 1960 32,099 20,634 5,373 6,092 64.3 16.7 19.0 1950 26,665 18,561 2,945 5,159 69.6 11.0 19.3 1940 24,889 17,176 2,236 5,477 69.0 9.0 22.0 1930 22,012 17,243 2,010 2,759 78.3 9.1 12.5 1917 26,051 19,523 1,922 4,606 74.5 7.4 17.7 1911 27,086 NA^ NA NA NA NA NA 1901 30,527 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1890 32,786 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1880 33,763 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1855 57,821 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1846 39,588 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1835 43,178 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1796 35,657 NA NA NA NA NA NA 1773 28,582 NA NA NA NA NA NA ^Variation in the "mixed and other" group is due to changing census definitions. Before 1970 "mixed and other" would have included many mulattoes, but in 1970 many of the same people would have been classified "Negro." See Chapter VIII for a full explanation. ^NA = not available. Sources: Census of Population: 1970, Table 5; Census of Population: 1960. Table 5; Census of Population: 1950. Table 54; and Luther Harris Evans, The Virgin Islands : From Naval Base to New Deal (Ann Arbor : J.M. Edwards, 1945), p. 21. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A - 3 APPENDIX TABLE 3 CHARACTERISTICS OF HOUSING IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS 1960 Characteristic No. of Units Water Supply Pip :d Inside 2,309 Private Cistern 3,982 Other 3,199 Toilet Flush Inside 3,529 Privy 2,929 Nightsoil Can 1,789 Other 1,252 Bathtub or Shower Exclusive Use 3,433 272 None 5,781 Mechanical Refrigeration With 4,784 Without 3,720 Kitchen Inside, Exclusive Use 7,315 Outside, Shared or None 2,154 Source: U.S. Census of Housing: 1960. Tables 2 and 3. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A -4 < i es o 00 «a- o\ o 00 es ro co co SÎ (S < vo o\ o\ 00 0 3 $ (u (U 0) (U cd (umaejuuej^^(0 en m k M (jMUMedctfrtcdo) a S S S o 4 nJ etJ td o\ o\ c\ o 3 Ü 5 Ü do^ericrx'd'erimo^'q eo M (d (d (d o\ « • • m erv C3> C Pl0\0^0\r4es«a'0\ (d (3 (d o\ o\ o\ sf '7TT' ■ " § ! o in o o o oooor^voo " THCSiOHiHCSiOH Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. s i g Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A - 5 GOVERNORS OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS TO 1971 James H. Oliver 1917 - 1919 Joseph W. Oman 1919 - 1921 Sumner E. W. Kittelle 1921 - 1922 Henry H. Hough 1922 - 1923 Philip Williams 1923 - 1925 Martin E. Trench 1925 - 1927 Waldo Evans 1927 - 1931 Paul M. Pearson 1931 - 1935 Lawrence W. Cramer 1935 - 1941 Charles Harwood 1941 - 1946 William H. Hastie 1946 - 1950 Morris F. de Castro 1950 - 1954 Archie A. Alexander 1954 - 1955 Walter A. Gordon 1955 - 1958 John D. Merwin 1959 - 1961 Ralph Paiewonsky 1961 - 1969 Melvin H. Evans 1969 _ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY A. Virgin Islands Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the Interior. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, reports from 1960 to 1970 inclusive. Bartlett, Frederick. Report to the Governor of the Virgin Islands on Population and Economic Factors for Planning in the Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie; mimeo, 1947. Best, Ethel L. The Economic Problems of the Women of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 142. Brown, Herbert D. Report on Political. Social and Economic Conditions in the Virgin Islands. Washington: unpublished typewritten carbon copy, 1930. Rare Book Division, Library of Congress. Butler, Hugh. Virgin Islands Report. 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess. Washington ; GovernmentPrinting Office, 1954. Campbell, Albert A. "Note on the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands," Jewish Social Studies. Vol. IV, No. 2, 1942. ______. "St. Thomas Negroes - A Study in Personality and Culture," Psychological Monographs, American Psychological Association, Vol. 55, No. 5, 1943. Cochran, Hamilton. These are the Virgin Islands. New York: Prentice Hall, 1937. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Colonial Law for the Danish West India Islands, Amalienborg 6th, April 1906. St. Thomas: Government Printing Office, 1924 (translation). Cook, Katherine M. Public Education in the Virgin Islands. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1934. Cramer, Lawrence. Annual Report - 1937. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Creque, Darwin D. Planning a Balanced Economic Develop ment Program for Small Business in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie: Department of Commerce (V.I. Government), 1963. ______. The U.S. Virgins and the Eastern Caribbean. Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 1968. ______, and H. Goeggel. A Study of the Tourist Industry in the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas, V.I.: Virgin Islands Government, • 1964. Dalton, R.H. Mothers and Children: A Study of Parent Child Relationships in St. Thomas. Charlotte Amalie. No date. Unpublished. DeBooy, Theodore H.N., and John T. Faris. The Virgin Islands: Our New Possessions and the British Islands. Westport, Conn.: Negro University Press, 1970. (Reprinted from J.B. Lippencott Co., 1918.) Economic Development Board (Government of the Virgin Islands). The Overall Economic Development Program of the Economic Development Board. Charlotte Amalie: Government of the Virgin Islands of the U.S., 1962. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Evans, Luther Harris. The Virgin Islands: From Naval Base to New Deal. Ann Arbor: J.M. Edwards, 1945. Field, Albert J. "Housing, Land, and Agriculture in St. Croix, USVI: The Urbanization of a Caribbean Island," Caribbean Research Institute. 1966. Follett, Helen. Stick of Fire. New York: Vantage Press, 1956. Francis, Rothschild. "The Class War in the Virgin Islands," New Day. March 12, 1921. General Files, 1917-1927, No. 95, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Gladwin, Ellis. Living in the Caribbean. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1970. Government of the Virgin Islands of the U.S. Minimum Wage Order No. 8 and Minimum Recruitment Wage Order No. 2. Charlotte Amalie, 1969. Harman, Jerome P. The Virgins : Magic Islands. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1961. Hastie, William. Annual Report. 1947. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Henderson, Daniel M. "The Country We Forgot," McClure's Magazine, Dec. 12, 1919 (proofs, no volume or number). General Files No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B-4 Hill, Valdemar A. A Golden Jubilee: Virgin Islanders on the Go Under the American Flag. New York: Carlton Press, 1967. ______• Rise to Recognition. Private Printing, 1971. Jarvis, Jose A. Brief History of the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas: The Art Shop, 1938. The Virgin Islands and Their People. Philadelphia: Dorranee & Co., 1944. Jones, T. Impressions of Nutrition Habits in the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas, Virgin Islands Department of Health, 1952. Kolko, Gabriel. Wealth and Power in America. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962. League of Women Voters, St. Thomas - St. John. A Study of Our Virgin Islands Government: Structure and Functions. St. Thomas, mimeo, 1970. LeV O , John. Virgin Islanders. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1933. Lewis, Gordon K. "The Myth of Danish Culture," Virgin Islands View, Vol. Ill, No. 3, August, 1967. ______. The Virgin Islands: A Caribbean Lilliput. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972. (Galley Proof.) Lewisohn, Florence. St. Croix Under Seven Flags. Hollywood, Fla.: The Dukane Press, 1970. "The Making of a Governor : The Honorable Ralph M. Paiewonsky," Virgin Islands View, Vol. I, No. 3, August, 1965. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Moore, Rachel Wilson. Journal of Rachel Wilson Moore Kept During a Tour to the West Indies and South America in 1863-64, With Notes From the Diary of Her Husband; Together With His Memoir, by George Truman, M.D. Philadelphia: T. Ellwood Zell, Publisher, 1867. Murphy, H., and H. Sampath. Mental Health in a Caribbean Community: A Mental Health Survey of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Unpublished. Charlotte Amalie, 1967. Oldman, 0., and M. Taylor. "Tax Incentives for Economic Growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands," Caribbean Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, Oct., 1970. Oliver, James H. Annual Report, 1917. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. O'Neill, Edward A. Rape of the American Virgins. New York: Praeger, 1972. Orlins, Martin G. The Impact of Tourism on the Virgin Islands of the United States. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1969. Oxholm, Axel. The Virgin Islands of the U.S.: An Opportunity and a Challenge. Unpublished. Charlotte Amalie, 1949. Paquin, Lionel. A Candid Look at the American Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie: No Publisher, 1971. Pearson, Paul M. Annual Reports 1931, 1932, 1934. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B -6 Pearson, Paul M. Letter to Cmdr. H.M. Lammers. Oct. 6, 1930. General Files 1927-1932, No. 22. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. ______. Memo to the Colonial Councils. No date. General Files, 1927-1932, No. 64. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C, Report of the Danish Parliamentary Commission Appointed in Accordance with Law No. 294 of September 30, 1916 in Relation to the Danish West Indian Islands. General Files, 1927-1932, No. 64, Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States, Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Report of the Educational Survey of the Virgin Islands. Authorized by the Secretary of the Navy and conducted under the auspices of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes. Hampton, Va.: The Press of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 1929. Rosenberg, J.C. "Cultural and Social Aspects of Agriculture in St. Croix," Caribbean Research Institute, 1966. Letter from Howard Ross to John Price, September 3, 1970. Letter, with attachments, provided to this author by the Office of Territories, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. Ruhl, Arthur. "Extracts from Articles in the New York Herald Tribune, May 12-16, 1931 by Arthur Ruhl." General Files 1927-1932, No. 70. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "Seven Long Years," Virgin Islands View. Vol. 3, No. 10, March, 1968 (editorial, unsigned). Shaw, E. "The Cha Chas of St. Thomas," Scientific Monthly, 1934. (No precise date, copy in Charlotte Amalie Public Library.) Social, Educational Research and Development, Inc. Aliens in the U.S. Virgin Islands; Temporary Workers in a Permanent Economy. Charlotte Amalie: College of the Virgin Islands, 1968. ______. An AIM Pilot Survey of Alien Attitudes and Experiences in the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas, 1969. Taylor, Charles Edwin. Leaflets From the Danish West Indies. London: Wm. Dawson and Sons, 1888. Tucker, Rufus S. Economic Conditions of the Virgin Islands. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926 (Senate document No. 110, 69th Cong., 1st Sess.). U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Activities of the Virgin Islands Government and the Virgin Islands Corporation. Hearing, 85th Cong. 1st Sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957. U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Economic Appraisal of the Sugar Operations of the Virgin Islands Corporation. Hearings, 85th Cong., 1st Sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957. U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Insular Affairs. To Provide a Civil Government for the Virgin Islands of the United States. Hearing, 74th Cong., 2nd Sess., Washington, D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1936. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1966 United States Census of Agriculture. Vol, I, Part 53. Virgin Islands of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1967. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1970 Census of Housing. HC(1) A55, General Housing Characteristics. Virgin Islands of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census of Housing; 1960. Vol. I, States and Small Areas. Part 9, Outlying Areas. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1970 Census of Population. PC(1)-B55, General Population Characteristics. Virgin Islands of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Census of Population : 1960. Vol. I, Characteristics of the Population. Parts 54-57, Outlying Areas. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. United States Census of Population: 1950. Vol. II, Characteristics of the Population, Territories and Possessions, Part 54. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1953. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940. Population and Housing. General Character istics, Virgin Islands of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930. Outlying Territories and Possessions. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census of the Virgin Islands of the United States: November 1. 1917. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918. U.S. Department of Labor. Report of the Federal Commission Appointed by the Secretary of Labor to Investigate Industrial and Economic Conditions in the Virgin Islands U.S.A. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, February 29, 1924. United States Statutes at Large. 1954. "An Act to Revise the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of the United States." Vol. 68, Part I, "Public Laws and Reorganization Plans." Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1955. Virgin Islands Employment Service. Job Opportunity Survey: March. 1958. Virgin Islands Government, Charlotte Amalie, 1958. Weinstein, Edwin A. Cultural Aspects of Delusion. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962. Williams, George Washington. Letter from Government Attorney (Williams) to Governor, March 22, 1923. General Files, No* 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Williams, Philip. Annual Report, 1925. General Files, No. 27. Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Record Group 55, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B -10 B. Historical Materialism Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1971. Avineri, Shlomo. The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx. Ca.mbridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969. Baran, Paul. The Political Economy of Growth. New York: M o d e m Reader, 1957. Baron, Samuel H. Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1963. Berlin, Isiah. Karl Marx: His Life and Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939. Bober, Mande11 M. Karl Marx's Interpretation of History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962. Bochenki, Joseph M., ed. The Dogmatic Principles of Soviet Philosophy. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1963. Bukharin, Nikolai. Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology. New York: Russell and Russell, 1965 (1st pub., 1925). Cammett, John M. Antonio Gramsci and the Origins of Italian Communism. Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1967. Chang, Sherman H.S. The Marxian Theory of the State. New York: Russell & Russell, 1965 (1st pub., 1930). Chesnokov, Dmitrii. Historical Materialism. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Comforth, Maurice. Historical Materialism. New York: International Publishers, 1971. ______. Materialism and the Dialectical Method. New York: International Publishers, 1968. Croce, Benedetto. Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl Marx. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1966 (first edition pub lished in 1914). DeGeorge, Richard T. Patterns of Soviet Thought: The Origins and Development of Dialectical and Historical Materialism. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1966. Desan, Wilfred. The Marxism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co. (Anchor Books), 1966. Engels, Frederick. Anti-Duhring. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1962. Letters on Historical Materialism, in Lewis Feuer, ed., Marx & Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, in Lewis Feuer, ed., Marx & Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959. Socialism: Utopian & Scientific. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966. The Peasant War in Germany, in Lewis Feuer, ed. , Marx '& Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fromm, Erich. Marx's Concept of Man. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Col, 1961. Garaudy, Roger. Marxism in the Twentieth Century. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970. Genovese, Eugene D. In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History. New York: Pantheon Books, 1968. Glezerman, Grigorii, and G. Kursanov, eds. Historical Materialism: Basic Problems. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1968. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith, ed. and trans. New York: International Publishers, 1971. The Modem Prince and Other Writings. New York: Intemational Publishers, 1957. Jordan, Zbigniew A. The Evolution of Dialectical Materialism. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1967. Kline, G.L. "Review of Rodolfo Mondolfo's El Materialismo Historico en Frederick Engels," Joumal of Philosophy. 51, 1954. Korsch, Karl. Karl Marx. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963 (first published in 1938). Labedz, Leopold, ed. Revisionism: Essays on the History of Marxist Ideas. New York: Praeger, 1962. Labriola, Antonio. Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History. New York and London : Monthly Review Press, 1966 (first published in 1903). Lefebvre, Henri. Dialectical Materialism. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1968 (1st ed., 1940). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B-13 Lenin, Vladimir I. Marx. Engels. Marxism. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1968. Materialism and Empiric-Criticism. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1947. Lukacs, Georg. History and Class Consciousness. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971 (1st published, 1923). Mao Tse-tung. Four Essays on Philosophy. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1968. Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (V.I.) . New York: Random House (Modem Library), no date. ______. Capital: Vol. III. F. Engels, eci. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1962. ______. The Class Struggles in France: 1848 to 1850. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, no date. ______. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970. ______. Critique of the Gotha Program. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966. ______. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1967. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1967. _, and Frederick Engels. The German Ideology. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964. The Grundrisse. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B-14 Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Critique. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956. Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966. ______• Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations. With an introduction by Eric J. Hobsawm. New York: Intemational Publishers, 1964. ______• Theses on Feuerbach, in Lewis Feuer, ed., Marx & Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959. ______, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party, in Lewis Feuer, ed., Marx 6c Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1959. ______, and Frederick Engels. On the Paris Commune. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971. Contains The Civil War in France, and notes, articles, speeches, etc. by Marx and Engels on the commune. Meek, Robert L. "Karl Marx's Economic Method," in Economics and Ideology and Other Essays. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd., 1967. Mills, Charles Wright. The Marxists. New York: Delta, 1962. Novack, George, ed. Existentialism Vs. Marxism: Conflicting Views on Humanism. New York: Delta, 1966. Ossowski, Stanslaw. Class Structuie in the Social Consciousness. London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B-15 Plekhanov, Georgi V. The Development of the Monist View of History. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956 (1st published, 1894). ______. Fundamental Problems of Marxism. New York: Intemational Publishers, 1969 (1st published, 1908). Sartre, Jean-Paul. Search for a Method. New York: Vintage Books, 1968. Stalin, Joseph V. Dialectical and Historical Materialism. New York: Intemational Publishers, 1940. Wetter, Gustav A. Dialectical Materialism. New York: Praeger, 1958. Soviet Ideology Today. New York: Praeger, 1966. Witt-Hansen, Johannes. Historical Materialism: The Method, the Theories : Exposition and Critique. Book One: The Method. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1961. Zeitlin, Irving M. Marxism: A Re-Examination. New York: Van Nostrand, 1967. Zitta, Victor. Georg Lukacs' Marxism: Alienation. Dialectics. Revolution. The Hague: Martinus Nyhoff, 1964. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.