Three Little Virgins

Fifteen motor cars sped out of Washington and across the green acres of Maryland striped with the long shadows of a late afternoon sun. Franklin D. Roosevelt was going down to the sea. Going down with him were his wife, his four sons, newshawks, secret service men, many an official friend. Notably absent was his gruff, wrinkle-faced little No. 1 secretary, friend and jealous counselor, Louis McHenry Howe, who lay doubled up with a chronic stomach ailment on his White House bed. Goodbys were said on the dock of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Then the President & party stalked up the gangplank of the destroyer Gilmer and she stood away, down the Severn, to the point where the cruiser Houston lay anchored.

The President was off to sea, and out of the public eye. Aboard the Houston he had only his two young sons Franklin Jr. and John, Rudolph Forster, chief White House clerk, Richard Jervis, chief of the White House Secret Service, his Bodyguardsman Gus Gennerich, his Physician Commander Ross T. Mclntire, his Negro Valet Irvin McDuffy, a sack of mail, a special library of 300 books, his seven-foot bed in the Admiral's suite. The entire Press and Public were represented by Associated Pressman Francis M. Stevenson, United Pressman Frederick A. Storm and Universal Serviceman Edward L. Roddan who trailed two miles behind in the Gilmer. Two additional secret service men followed in another destroyer, the Williamson.

Next morning shortly after dawn the Houston halted at Hampton Roads to discharge the last batch of official mail, before passing out between Capes Henry and Charles. Ahead lay a long itinerary: a stop at Cap Haitien, so that President Roosevelt could pay a return call on President Vincent of Haiti; another stop at Puerto Rico; and then the three little Virgin Islands which 17 years ago gave up their maiden name, the Danish West Indies, when they were married to the U.S. for $25,000,000.

No motive of wanton pomp or curiosity was leading President Roosevelt thither. When President Hoover visited St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John in 1931, he shocked their inhabitants by calling their domicile an "effective poorhouse." President Roosevelt has already expressed his intention of making the three little Virgins into a New Deal archipelago.

His instructor in the hard facts of their situation was to be Paul Martin Pearson, onetime professor of oratory, founder of the Swarthmore Chautauqua, father of Newshawk Drew Pearson Washington Merry-Go-Round. A kind and visionary old gentleman, Mr. Pearson became the first civil governor of the islands three years ago. The hard economic facts among the 22,000 Virgin islanders (93% Negro) :

P:No more than $25,000 of private U. S. capital has gone into the islands since the U. S. took possession.

P:No U. S. steamship line provides regular service to the islands.

P:There is only one commercial bank, left by the Danes, and its charter has expired.

P: Many rum distilleries which did a good business before Prohibition are half overgrown by jungles.

P: In St. Croix, largest of the three Virgins, only 43 people paid income taxes in 1933. Of those who die 65% are buried as paupers. Of the children born 65% are illegitimate. Among 4,545 families only 400 men can qualify to vote. (Requirement : $60 a year income or property worth $300.)

The President will have a first hand opportunity for seeing the steps that are being taken to remedy these conditions. One of his jobs will be to lay the cornerstone of a new hotel at St. Thomas, to attract tourist trade. Another will be to inspect Virgin Islands' subsistence homesteads--two-room huts instead of the one-room huts in which the natives have lived for generations. He will also hear the outdoor singing festivals and "rhythm" bands to which Governor Pearson has devoted so much time and trouble.

The replacement of National Bank of Danish West Indies is already under way. Since no private U. S. bank would establish a branch in the islands, RFC has promised $125,000 capital, and Islanders have subscribed $50,000 to start a new National Bank of the Virgin Islands.

Biggest New Deal project, however, is the investment of $1,000,000 of PWA funds and the starting of Virgin Islands Co. This corporation is to grow sugar, distill rum, and enter any other business that looks promising. All its shares will be held by public trustees, but it will pay taxes, be run for profit. Last week Virgin Islands Co. had just $30 capital, resulting from the sale of one share of stock to Secretary Ickes, one share to Assistant Secretary of the Interior Chapman and one share to Governor Pearson. It cannot begin to function until PWA buys 2,500 acres of sugar land, a rum distillery and a sugar factory.

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