Workers’ strikes on both islands prompt sale

In 1916, for the sixth time, negotiations for the Danish West Indies were being considered by the United States and Denmark. Throughout the discussions, Virgin Islanders had found themselves on the same economic scale as they were in 1902 in the year of the great reforms. As these initiatives had failed to materialize, the people were disappointed and frustrated. Little noticeable progress had trickled down to official canada goose outlet their lives. In his book, goose outlet canada “A Brief History of the Virgin Islands,” the journalist and editor J. Antonio Jarvis stated, “conditions were intolerable and ruinous; the people were partly starving.”

Proposed economic plans

Between 1902 and 1912, numerous economic recovery schemes were instituted. These were financed and implemented by metropolitan investors and were foreseen to jump start the economy.

On St. Croix, with a population of 20,000, expanded agricultural changes were instituted, among them the expansion of the sugar cane harvest, introduction of new crops such as cotton and experimentation with other fruit crops. Modernized machinery was imported: ginneries for the cotton, canada goose conveyor belts and vacuum pans installed in the central factories and pumping stations for the sugar cane juice. Steam tractors were rotated from estate to estate for farmers to plough their own parcels of land.

Undoubtedly, effort was put into the stimulation canada goose outlet store of crop production by Danish managers and Crucian workers, but a host of negative situations, spurred by worldwide conditions, translated into lower prices on the international market. Also in the latter period, cotton became infested by the Canada Goose sale boll weevil, and small tracts of marginal soil became eroded. All conditions led to frustration on behalf of the initial investor, and few profits filtered down to the small farmer.

In St. Thomas, with a population of 10,000 at this same period, metropolitan investors put money in 1904 toward the establishment of the Danish National canada goose outlet Bank and in 1912 canada goose outlet uk sale the Danish West Indian Plantation Company. The bank circulated a Danish West Indian currency, the lack of which had started the coal carriers’ strike of 1892.

The plantation Canada Goose Parka company introduced the mass scale planting of bananas and pineapples and provided markets for bulk produce to be canada goose clearance sold in Denmark. While the contract for the bank had an iron clad charter until 1934, the fruit company dealt with perishable canada goose uk shop goods and unpredictable shipping schedules disrupted by a canada goose clearance sale European war.

Additionally, the West Indian Company, WICO, was formed in 1912. Three midsized cargo and passenger ships under the control of Danish financing were to be the flagships of the company, transporting Danish mail, cargo and passengers. Previously, Denmark had relied on the vessels of other nations, most specifically Germany.

Besides shipping, WICO became the prime agency of coal bunkering as canada goose outlet three established agencies, which had served St. Thomas for generations, had moved to other Caribbean islands. Additionally, WICO had the contract to electrify the town as well as its own premises, including its automated cranes for loading and discharging coal. These mechanical devices provided quicker loading/offloading to steam ships, a process that had taken 100 carriers five six hours for canada goose outlet new york city each ship and had cost $2,000 in wages.

Once WICO mechanized, more than 2,000 men and women laborers were deemed redundant.

At the same time, the reinvigoration of the harbor to attract more shipping companies was the focus of the Harbor Board. The governor, Christian Helweg Larsen (1862 1932), who served between 1912 1916, assumed the chairmanship of the board, which since 1904 was independent of any government funding, supporting itself from its collections of harbor dues, vessel registrations, pilot fees, and import/export taxes.

Started in 1910, metropolitan investors contributed to the dredging of the harbor to 31 feet in depth so that the St. Thomas port would be more attractive to larger shipping concerns. Helweg Larsen was intent on seeing these initiatives to completion.

Nongovernmental response to people’s social needs

As a response to the needs outlined in the Commission of 1902′s report, nongovernmental agencies took up raising funds and building institutions for the needy. The Queen Louise foundation instituted two orphanages and a girls’ home on St. Croix. These facilities were administered by deaconesses, teaching nurses, who also went out in the community and instructed mothers in the care of their children.

A system of royally trained midwives was in place throughout the countryside to stem the high rate of infant mortality. Additionally, the Odd Fellows of Copenhagen built and supplied a leprosarium and an insane asylum became part of the Richmond facilities. In the 1890s the government had built Aldershville old age home in Frederiksted.

Within the St. Thomas community, Sophie Helweg Larsen, wife of the governor, headed up a Ladies’ Association for raising and distributing funds to the needy. Churches in both districts provided canada goose outlet store uk places for the elderly; Pleasant Grove in Water Gut and the Bethania in Frederiksted were built by the Lutheran Church, and the vestry of the English Church Christiansted monthly distributed alms to the poor and established housing for them.

These institutions, however, did not provide for the greater percentage of the population who were malnourished because of the lack of food due to the blockades of the war. Early in 1914, to fend off some of the starvation, Gov. Helweg Larsen had instituted price controls on a list of basic staples.

Response to the pressure

of low wages

In St. Thomas in September 1892, the coal workers struck with the slogan “a dollar for a dollar,” figuratively meaning that they wanted the full value of their pay, not the 65 canada goose outlet in usa percent with which the merchants were cashing each of their tokens. Not only were the carriers, but also the tippers and the chute men, who worked in the holds of ships, and the trimmers, who shoveled the coal into the women’s baskets, involved in the strike. Croix, D. Hamilton Jackson (1884 1946) served as a teacher on St. Croix where according to Mario Moorehead, “Ninety percent of the population could not read or write.” Jackson had become dismayed and frustrated with conditions under which he saw children and their parents living. He started to speak out against the social conditions and was fired by Director of Schools Rubner Petersen.

Jackson then focused on the plight of the young men of the estates, who unlike their counterparts in the town were destined for the fields after their meager education in the country schools. Canegata instituted the Mutual Improvement Society, which met weekly to discuss and debate issues pertaining to temperance, nationalism and self canada goose uk outlet betterment. The members were focused on what they saw around them: the lack of education, social welfare and health services for the laborers.

In the spring of 1915, Jackson canada goose jacket outlet had won the respect of the people who in turn donated funds toward his travel to Denmark to report these injustices to the Minister of Finance, whose office oversaw the administration of the islands. The conservatives of the Improvement Society did canada goose outlet not want Jackson speaking out in Denmark. Thus, the more conservative members of the society broke https://www.buchholz-net.de away.

At the same time, both Jackson and Helweg canada goose outlet canada goose coats on sale online Larsen were in Copenhagen, and the ministry wished to speak about island conditions with them together. The governor refused. Croix Avis” accepted only articles on general topics, and refused those with political overtones, standing firm on limiting the freedom of the press. Jackson. From Virgin Islanders in New York, he was given secondhand press canada goose factory outlet so that he could publish “The Herald” immediately.