Chapter IV: The English in Jamaica

Having sought light and information in relation to the future political government of Cuba from both Cuban and Spanish sources, for the Marquis de Apezteguia is more Spanish than Cuban, it may be well to ascertain if any useful lesson may be found in British colonial administration. With this thought in view, the author, after completing the work in Cuba, made a brief visit to the island of Jamaica. Through the courtesy of the American Mail Steamship Company, the S.S. _Admiral Sampson_ stopped at Santiago and thus enabled me to reach Port Antonio, Jamaica, in seven hours. At this point I met Captain L. D. Baker, the head of the vast American fruit interests of Jamaica, and with him visited Kingston and had an interview with the Governor-General of Jamaica, and with the heads of nearly all the Departments of Government. In this connection it affords me pleasure to mention the name of Dr. James Johnston, member of the Jamaica Council for St. Ann's Parish and member of the Commission now revising the revenue law of Jamaica. Dr. Johnston was a fellow-passenger on the S.S. _Sampson_, on its return voyage to the United States, and furnished much valuable explanatory information in relation to the government of Jamaica, for which this opportunity is taken to express thanks.

The information thus obtained and the data gathered from the various blue books and the reports of the Royal Commission on the British West India Islands, all have a special bearing on the problem the United States is now confronting in Cuba, and hence on the political future of the Island. Better to appreciate the present aims of British administration in Jamaica, one should read the following extract from an article in the December number of _Scribner's Magazine_, by the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary:

"In the first period of this eventful history the territories
acquired by conquest or discovery were treated as possessions to be
exploited entirely for the advantage of the occupying nation, and
little or no thought was given to the rights or the interests
either of the original inhabitants or of the colonists who had
dispossessed them. This view of the relations between a state and
its outlying territories continued more or less throughout the
eighteenth century, although the War of Independence in America did
much to modify and dispel it. The success of the Revolution not
only destroyed the hope that colonies could be made tributary to
the mother country, but led ultimately to the conclusion that,
since they would never be a source of direct revenue, we should be
better without colonies at all. Assuming that an entirely
independent and separate existence was the ultimate destiny of all
our possessions abroad, and believing that this consummation would
relieve us of burdensome obligations, we readily conceded
self-government to the colonies in the temperate zones, in the
hopes that this would hasten the inevitable and desirable result.
We found, not without surprise, that in spite of hints to this
effect, our kinsfolk and fellow-subjects resented the idea of
separation and, fortunately for us, preferred to remain, each
'daughter in her mother's house and mistress in her own.'
Influenced by the same idea, we elaborated constitutions by the
score for every kind of tropical dependency, in the vain
expectation that the native population would appreciate forms of
government evolved in our own civilisation, and would learn quickly
to be self-supporting and to develop for themselves the territories
in which we began to think we had only a temporary interest. We
were disappointed, and we have had to recognise the fact that, for
an indefinite period of time, the ideas and standards of our
political and social order cannot be intelligently accepted or
applied by races which are centuries behind us in the process of
national evolution. The experience of Hayti and Liberia under
independent native government, of many of the South American
republics, of Egypt and of India, and the stagnation of all
tropical countries, in regard to matters dependent on local effort,
make it evident that wherever the white man cannot be permanently
or advantageously acclimatised and wherever, therefore, the great
majority of the population must always be natives, the only
security for good government and for the effective development of
the resources of the country consists in providing this native
population with white superintendence, and with rulers and
administrators who will bring to their task the knowledge derived
from the experience of a higher civilisation; and, constantly
changing, will be always under the influence of the standards and
ideals which they have been brought up to respect.

"This is the root idea of British administration in the tropics. At
the same time we have abandoned forever any desire to secure
tribute from these possessions, and we no longer seek any direct or
exclusive advantage.

"We find our profit in the increased prosperity of the people for
whose interests we have made ourselves responsible, and in the
development of, and access to, markets which we open at the same
time to the rest of the world. Our primary obligation is to
maintain peace, and safety of life and property, and equal justice
for all irrespective of race or class. Subject to these conditions,
we interfere as little as possible with native religions, customs,
or laws; and under this system we are successfully administering
the affairs of hundreds of millions of people of almost every race
under the sun, with trifling cost to the British taxpayer, and with
the smallest army of white soldiers of any of the powers of Europe.
In India, where three hundred millions of people acknowledge the
Queen as Empress, the total white garrison is only seventy thousand
men; in Egypt, with a population of nine millions, the normal white
garrison is thirty-five hundred men; while in Ceylon, the Straits
Settlements and protected States, the West Indies, and West Africa
not a single white regiment is stationed for the maintenance of our
rule, which is secured entirely by coloured soldiers and police
under British officers. Our experience should at least go far to
satisfy the objections of those Americans who anticipate that the
occupation of tropical countries would involve the retention of
vast numbers of American soldiers in an unhealthy climate, and
would lay an intolerable burden on the American treasury."

The Spanish idea in its government of Cuba was purely and absolutely the idea of possession, and the facts pointing to this will be abundantly set forth in the several chapters in this volume relating to the fiscal, commercial, and industrial condition of the Island of Cuba. The work of reconstruction already so auspiciously begun by the United States Government in Santiago, and described in a subsequent chapter, is absolutely in line with what Mr. Chamberlain aptly terms the root idea of British administration in the tropics. The primary obligation of the United States in Cuba is to maintain peace, the safety of life and property, and equal justice for all, irrespective of race or class. The final instructions given by the President of the United States, last August, to the author, leaving for Cuba, were to the effect that the United States desired to secure no tribute from Cuba, that the work of reconstruction must be performed in the interests of the people of Cuba, only, and that the profit to the United States must come in the increased prosperity of the people of Cuba, and in the benefits accruing from a peaceful, instead of a constantly warring neighbour. According to Mr. Chamberlain, this is the fundamental principle underlying England's operation in her tropical colonies.

In comparing British administration in Jamaica with any possible operations of the United States Government in Cuba, the fact of the great difference in the population must be considered. In Jamaica not over 15,000 of the 700,000 population are white. When England began to treat this island as a trust, and not as a possession,--say about 1834,--the population was made up of 311,070 slaves, 15,000 whites, 40,000 coloured, or brown people, as they are called in Jamaica, and 5000 free blacks. In Cuba a majority of the population are white--the census of 1887 showing 1,102,889 white and 528,798 coloured--in all provinces; Matanzas, with forty-five per cent. coloured, and Santiago, with forty-two per cent. coloured, representing the strongest coloured sections of the Island. That half a century of British rule in Jamaica has improved the population of Jamaica, nearly all of whom were slaves when the work was begun, is self-evident, though it is equally true that similar government in Cuba would have resulted, by reason of the preponderance of white population, in more far-reaching results. That is, Cuba, under such a government as England has given Jamaica, would, in all reasonable probability, have numbered at this time a population of from four to five millions, with a greatly increased commerce, diversified industries, magnificent main and parochial roads, an adequate railway system, many prosperous and well-built cities, and a degree of prosperity and civilisation far in excess of that which the United States officials found when they took possession of the Island. With the disadvantages of race, with the scars of slavery, and, until recently, with the single industry of sugar and its allied product, rum, the policy set forth so clearly by Mr. Chamberlain has been successful in making habitable and law-abiding and measurably prosperous a tropical island which might have been in a condition little better than that of savagery.

To be sure, England has not made Anglo-Saxons of these people, but it has made of them peaceful, law-abiding, and, in the main, self-respecting citizens. There is little doubt that the bulk of the inhabitants of Jamaica are in a position which compares not unfavourably with that of the peasants of most countries in the world. The facts given farther along show that the condition of the labouring classes of Jamaica is infinitely better than that of the labouring classes--especially the coloured population--of Cuba, who are in a deplorable state, even on plantations where work is abundant. The number of holdings in Jamaica is 92,979, of which 81,924 are under ten acres each. In 1882 there were only 52,608 holdings, of which 43,707 were under ten acres each. Even allowing for the fact that some persons may hold two or more plots of land, it is clear that the island already contains a very large and increasing number of peasant proprietors. The Crown Land Regulations offer facilities for the settlement of the labouring population on the land, and as sugar estates are abandoned some of them will probably fall into the hands of small cultivators. In the last ten years the number of savings-bank accounts of the amount of twenty-five dollars and under has nearly doubled. The census returns of 1891 show that in the ten years, 1881 to 1891, there had been an increase of thirty per cent. in the number of persons able to read and write. The acreage of provision grounds has increased more than thirty per cent. in ten years. There are 70,000 holdings of less than five acres. The area in coffee, usually in small lots, increased in ten years from 17,000 to 23,000 acres. More than 6,000 small sugar-mills are owned by the peasantry. The number of enrolled scholars was 100,400 in 1896, as against 49,000 in 1881; while the actual average daily attendance at schools had increased from 26,600 to 59,600. These facts indicate considerable advance, though no doubt in certain districts the people are poor. The Royal Commission appointed to investigate and report on the agricultural, commercial, and industrial condition of the West Indies came to the conclusion that the depression in Jamaica was the result of the almost entire dependence of the island on a single industry. Here is what they say:

"The general statement regarding the danger of depending on a
single industry applies with very special force to the dependence
of the West Indian Colonies upon the sugar industry, for the
cultivation of sugar collects together a larger number of people
upon the land than can be employed or supported in the same area by
any other form of cultivation. In addition to this it also unfits
the people, or at any rate gives them no training, for the
management or cultivation of the soil for any other purpose than
that of growing sugar-cane. The failure, therefore, of a sugar
estate not only leaves destitute a larger number of labourers than
can be supported upon the land in other ways, but leaves them also
without either the knowledge, skill, or habits requisite for making
a good use of the land. In those colonies where the sugar industry
cannot be carried on without imported coolie labour the position of
dependence upon this one industry is still more dangerous. In these
cases not only is there a yearly charge upon the public revenue to
meet the cost of immigration, but a liability for back passages is
incurred, which a failure of the industry would leave the colony
without funds to meet. Whilst, therefore, the vital importance of
the sugar industry to the present prosperity of nearly all the
colonies is beyond dispute, we wish to observe that so long as they
remain dependent upon sugar their position can never be sound or
secure. It has become a commonplace of criticism to remark upon the
perpetual recurrence of crises in the West Indian Colonies, and we
submit that the repeated recurrence of such crises, as well as the
fact that the present crisis is more ominous than any of the
previous ones, illustrates the danger to which we have referred,
and adds much force to our recommendations for the adoption of
special measures to facilitate the introduction of other
industries."

The special remedies recommended were as follows:

"1. The settlement of the labouring population on small plots of
land as peasant proprietors.

"2. The establishment of minor agricultural industries, and the
improvement of the system of cultivation, especially in the case of
small proprietors.

"3. The improvement of the means of communication between the
different islands.

"4. The encouragement of a trade in fruit with New York, and,
possibly, at a future time, with London.

"5. The grant of a loan from the Imperial Exchequer for the
establishment of central factories in Barbadoes.

"The subject of emigration from the distressed tracts also requires
the careful attention of the various governments, though we do not
find ourselves at the present time in a position to make
recommendations in detail."

The fact is, Captain L. D. Baker, of the Boston Fruit Company, and the other companies engaged in the banana and orange business of Jamaica, have pointed a way out of the present difficulties, and that industry, in the course of a short time, bids fair to be as important as the sugar industry was in former times. Last year this single company shipped five million bunches of bananas to New York. There are now over one hundred thousand orange trees planted in Jamaica, which in a few years will be bearing finely and give additional prosperity to the country. With the American fruit market inadequately supplied, and the English market practically untouched, there is hope both in Jamaica and Cuba--especially Santiago province--for diversified industries created by rapid transportation. The recent establishment of a fleet of fast steamships between New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore, and the various ports of Jamaica, and the probability that these or similar lines will be established between the United States and Cuban ports, are all factors of promise for the industrial future of both the British and the American West Indies.

While Jamaica is a well-governed country, and its revenue is all honestly expended for the public good of the people, it is far from an economically administered government. Order is thoroughly established, laws are obeyed, justice for the humblest is easily obtainable, education is general, sanitary matters admirably administered, roads maintained, the rights of all conserved, and the revenue honestly collected and expended. In these particulars the government of Jamaica differs widely from that which the author found in Cuba. In that unhappy Island all is absolutely the reverse of this. The cost of governing Jamaica, however, is nearly twenty-five per cent. of the value of its commerce, whereas the cost of governing Cuba--if gauged by the actual revenue raised--under Spanish rule ranged from 12-1/2 to 15 per cent. of the value of its commerce. The comparison, however, is of little value, because Cuba got nothing for the money exacted by taxation, while Jamaica not only gets all, but also the taxpayers are informed in advance of the purposes for which much of the money is wanted, and the sums thus raised are rigidly applied to the purposes for which they are appropriated. The most useful lessons for those responsible for administering the affairs of Cuba can be learned by a study of the Jamaica Budgets. The methods of raising the needed revenue are intelligent and simple, and the method of expenditure not only enables the authorities to get as much as possible for the money, but also makes possible the strictest accountability. The Legislative Council of Jamaica discusses every item of the budget as closely as the Town Council of Glasgow or the County Council of London, both model public bodies, so far as honesty of purpose goes, even if some of their legislative experiments fail. The humblest Jamaica negro, if he can read and write, may at least know the purposes for which the revenue he pays in taxes is expended. He may even have the pleasure of deciding which of these items of expenditure he regards the least important. At the present moment the annual cost of education, $350,000, is regarded as too high, and a proposition to reduce it to $250,000 is pending. The total expenditures of Jamaica have reached nearly $4,000,000 and additional revenue is necessary to meet these expenses. The customs tariff is in course of revision, with a view of increasing the revenue, and many articles formerly on the free list will have to be put upon the dutiable list, while the general ad valorem rates of duty must be raised from 12-1/2 to 16-2/3 per cent. Before going into the future sources of revenue, it may be well to look at the present sources, and for that purpose the subjoined table has been compiled from official sources:

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF REVENUE OF JAMAICA, 1896-97

REVENUE. Pounds. Dollars.

Customs 321,780 1,608,900
Excise 122,735 613,675
Licences 732 3,660
Stamps 23,947 119,735
Post-Office 24,072 120,360
Telegraph 5,364 26,820
Tax on Stock[3]
Court Fees 8,284 41,420
Tax in lieu of Education Fees 11,243 56,215
Fines, etc. 4,412 22,060
Jamaica Railway 208 1,040
Reimbursements 35,969 179,845
Miscellaneous 13,992 69,960
Revenues now appropriated 181,663 908,315
Interest on Sinking Funds 14,199 70,995
Savings Bank 3,927 19,635
------- ---------
Total 773,527 3,867,635

IMMIGRATION REVENUE.

Capitation Tax, etc., Laws 7 of 1878 and 14 of 1891, 1,476 7,380
Miscellaneous 205 1,025
----- -----
Total 1,681 8,405

APPROPRIATED REVENUE.

Poor Rates 39,339 196,695
Kingston Streets 4,354 21,770
Market Dues
Pounds
Main Road Revenue, Law 17 of 1890 28,091 140,455
Parochial Roads 45,538 227,690
Sanitary 7,862 39,310
Fire Rates, Kingston 1,561 7,805
Trade, Metal, Hawker, and Gunpowder Licences,
Surplus Fund[4] 13,271 66,355
Gas Rates, etc. 3,793 18,965
Parochial General Purposes 4,503 22,515
Agricultural Produce Licences Law, 37 of 1896 3,685 18,425
Miscellaneous 8,544 42,720
Advances from General Revenue in aid of Funds 21,122 105,610
------- -------
Total 181,663 908,315

Customs, excise, and appropriated revenue, as will be seen above, are the principal sources of income, while the expenditures for the same period are divided under the following heads:

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF EXPENDITURE OF JAMAICA, 1896-97

EXPENDITURE. Pounds. Dollars.

Charges of Debt ................................ 82,417 412,085
Governor and Staff ............................. 7,368 36,840
Privy Council .................................. 62 310
Legislative Council ............................ 2,469 12,345
Colonial Secretariat ........................... 5,612 28,060
Director of Public Works ....................... 17,979 89,895
Audit Office ................................... 3,629 18,145
Treasury ....................................... 4,634 23,170
Savings Bank ................................... 3,275 16,375
Stamp Office ................................... 1,106 5,530
Post-Office and Telegraphs ..................... 35,910 179,550
Revenue Departments ............................ 39,969 199,845
Judicial ....................................... 45,611 228,055
Ecclesiastical ................................. 2,927 14,635
Medical ........................................ 59,307 296,535
Police ......................................... 60,889 304,445
Prisons and Reformatories ...................... 27,836 139,180
Education ...................................... 67,540 337,700
Harbour-Masters and Harbours and Pilotage ...... 2,741 13,705
Colonial Allowances and Military Expenditure ... 12,814 64,070
Miscellaneous .................................. 29,571 147,855
Census .........................................
Steam Communication ............................ 1,800 9,000
Stationery and Printing ........................ 7,989 39,945
Library and Museum ............................. 2,404 12,020
Plantations and Gardens ........................ 6,484 32,420
Railway[5] .......................................
Main Roads and Buildings ....................... 80,467 402,335
Pensions, etc. 16,962 84,810
Purposes now supplied by Appropriated Revenue .. 135,842 679,210
-------- ---------
Total Expenditure from Income ............ 765,607 3,828,035
Sinking-Funds, etc. ............................ 14,199 70,995
-------- ---------
Total Payments from Income ............... 779,806 3,899,030
Less Debt Payments as above .................... 14,199 70,995
-------- ---------
765,607 3,828,035
Add Expenditures from Moneys raised by Loans ... 8,125 40,625
-------- ---------
Total .......................................... 773,732 3,868,660
-------- ---------
Immigration .................................... 979 4,895

A glance at the above tables and then a glance at the budget of Cuba, which will be found in a subsequent chapter, is all that is necessary to show the vast difference between the British and the Spanish methods of dealing with the fiscal interests of their colonies. The business-like methods of the one, and the blind, slip-shod methods of the other, are in sharp contrast. In dealing with Cuba, it may be difficult to follow entirely these English methods of accounting at once. The sooner, however, the United States inaugurates its own clear methods of national bookkeeping and official accountability, the quicker the people of Cuba will appreciate sound business principles in the conduct of their own affairs. It makes no difference whether Cuba is annexed to the United States or established as an independent government; these lessons must be learned in either event, or the Island will come to grief. It is hardly necessary to do more than call attention to the principal items of expenditure.

First of all come roads. England has discovered that good roads are not only an important factor in mountainous countries in keeping order, but also the basis of industrial development and prosperity. In the budget given above the following items must be added together in order to ascertain the amount expended in 1897 for roads:

Main Roads and Buildings $402,335
Parochial Roads 227,690
--------
$630,025

Here may be found a good illustration of England's policy which is a great contrast to the policy of Spain in Cuba. No money has been spent on the roads of Cuba, all of which are in a deplorable condition. Attention should at once be given to this important question and a liberal sum out of both local and general revenues of the Island set apart for this purpose. The debt of Jamaica is not excessive; it is in the neighbourhood of $10,000,000, with an annual charge of about $400,000. Police and medical charges are about the same, averaging about $300,000 each, or in all $600,000.

In this connection attention is called to the annual expenditure on roads in Jamaica for fourteen years:

EXPENDITURE FOR MAIN AND PAROCHIAL ROADS IN
JAMAICA, FROM 1883-84 TO 1896-97, INCLUSIVE
-----------+------------+-----------+------------------
Year. |Appropriated|Expenditure|
|revenue for |for Main | Total.
| Parochial | Roads and |
| Roads. |Buildings. |
-----------+------------+-----------+---------+--------
| Pounds | Pounds | Pounds |Dollars.
|sterling. |sterling. |sterling.|
1883-84 .. |39,514 | 48,156 | 87,670 |438,350
1884-85 .. |40,496 | 47,614 | 88,110 |440,550
1885-86 .. |38,246 | 52,285 | 90,531 |452,655
1886-87 .. |39,670 | 48,080 | 87,750 |438,750
1887-88 .. |42,935 | 52,318 | 95,253 |476,265
1888-89 .. |42,146 | 57,632 | 99,778 |498,890
1889-90[6] |20,740 | 32,210 | 52,950 |264,750
1890-91 .. |50,317 | 91,659 |141,976 |709,880
1891-92 .. |44,845 | 91,659 |136,504 |682,520
1892-93 .. |48,520 | 83,718 |132,238 |661,190
1893-94 .. |50,169 | 58,460 |108,629 |543,145
1894-95 .. |47,111 | 65,647 |112,758 |563,790
1895-96 .. |48,398 | 68,654 |117,052 |585,260
1896-97 .. |45,538 | 80,467 |126,005 |630,025
-----------+------------+-----------+---------+--------
Total for | | |1,477,204|7,386,020
14 years | | | |
Average | | | |
per year | | | | 527,573
-----------+------------+-----------+---------+---------

The necessity of liberal expenditure for maintaining the health of the community is of first importance. A study of this budget may be found a preparation for the subsequent study of the Cuban budget, to which the reader's attention will be invited presently.

The present Jamaica tariff was evidently framed with the two ideas of revenue for the island and a market for British goods. Food products, for example, such as bacon, beef, beans, bread, butter, cheese, corn, meats, oats, oil, pork, rice, salt, sausages, wheat, sugar, tea, coffee, and many other staple articles are all on the dutiable list, some paying a fairly stiff rate of duty. On the other hand, many articles of merchandise, bricks, bridges, carts and waggons, clocks, diamonds, machinery, locomotives, and a host of other things, which England supplies the island, are all exempted from duty. Under a general ad valorem clause, 12-1/2 per cent. is collected on all articles not enumerated. The enumerated list of the Jamaica tariff is not large, so a large amount of merchandise has been actually imported under this clause. The proposed new tariff, which will probably go into effect next year, takes many articles off the free list and puts them on the dutiable list. It also increases the ad valorem rate to 16-2/3 per cent. This has been found necessary because there has been a deficit in the revenue. The new tariff is expected to yield £400,000, or about $2,000,000, and from internal revenue or excise £150,000, or $750,000, and £250,000, or $1,250,000, from appropriated revenue which will really come from the land and householders. Here it is summarised:

Revenue from Customs ......................... $2,000,000
" " Excise .......................... 750,000
" " Appropriated Revenue (land and
household taxes, etc.) ........ 1,250,000
----------
$4,000,000

If this amount can be secured, the revenue of Jamaica will be a trifle more than expenditure, and the result will be happiness. If not, expenses must be reduced. Some members of the Legislative Council favour this latter plan. The Commission has the whole fiscal question now in hand, and within a short time will probably reach conclusions.

There is much more of interest that might be said about the present economic condition of Jamaica, but the points herein brought out appear to be the only ones that bear especially on the problem continually facing the reader in a volume dealing with the industrial and commercial reconstruction of Cuba. It will also be interesting to compare the British method of colonial administration with the idea set forth in the previous chapter by the Marquis de Apezteguia, whose point of view in such matters is wholly Spanish. That is, the idea of possession is paramount. The Marquis evidently has no faith in the ability of the United States to administer the affairs of Cuba as a trust.