maturity by the way in which it demands that its elected representatives use the powers under the new act.

(4) No Resident Commissioner until Virgin Islands business and political activity develop to a point to justify the expenditure of $47,000 annually for 24,000 people.

(5) Making St. Thomas a "free port" with the hope that prices could be and would be reduced to the point where the islands will attract_tourists and visitors in increasing numbers. A great hope of the Virgin Islands, along with increased utilization of land and sea resources, rests in the development of its tourist appeal. It can meet competition of foreign ports in the Carribean area if local tax levies on tourist-serving enterprises are not too

onerous.

(6) Permit limited freedom of ingress and egress between the American Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands for exchange of goods and persons.

(7) Provide that income taxes paid by bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands may be credited to the Virgin Islands Treasury even though the source of such income is on the mainland.

THE VIRGIN ISLANDS CORPORATION

Unless, over the next 2 or 3 years, VICORP is able to operate on at least a break-even basis, then the Corporation and the government and the people of the Virgin Islands should begin to prepare for the termination of the Virgin Islands Corporation when its present charter terminates in 1959. By that time, the Federal Government should be out of commercial activity in the Virgin Islands, with the functions of the Corporation taken over by private business.

MISCELLANEOUS

With the exhaustion of the $10 million Harwood Act public-works program-which has turned out to cost about $11 million-I would hope that major appropriations from the Federal Treasury for nonrevenue-producing projects which the people of the Virgin Islands support with difficulty and great reluctance (witness the hesitancy about increasing medical fees which at best will only partially support the new hospital we built) are at an end for the present phase of Virgin Islands development. But in any event, let us hope that future public-works projects can be intelligently planned so as not to conflict with cane harvesting, thus depleting the already inadequate labor force.

New airport facilities are greatly needed in the islands. The cost of expanding adequately that at St. Thomas, or building a new one, would run up to a couple of million dollars. The one on St. Croix could be extended sufficiently to care for the largest planes that fly at a cost of only a couple of hundred thousand. The field would be a logical stopping point for North-South American planes, and in the event of war might be an extremely important advance base for our heavy bombers. Therefore, I urge that the St. Croix Airport be expanded; I shall do all that I can here in Washington to obtain Federal assistance for such a sound economic project.

The sugar quota would be increased to 20,000 tons, even though this means taking 8,000 tons away from some other area.

I also recommend favorable consideration for the construction of docking facilities on St. Croix. Such a facility not only would pay for itself within a few years, but it would also bring in sufficient local revenues to help build and support schools and health facilities. An example of the economic importance of a dock is the handling of sugar. Sugar is shipped in 250-pound bags, all of it from St. Croix. With present lighterage charges, the cost of loading a bag is approximately 28 cents. If dockage were available, loading costs would be only about 14 cents a bag. Even at present rates of production, this would save substantial sums.

As to roads, St. Thomas was well covered with paved roads built by the Navy during the war. Nonetheless, St. Thomas has had more than its share of road funds, as it has in all other public-works projects, with correspondingly less money available for St. Croix and St. John. Important agricultural areas on both St. Croix and St. John would be open to agricultural development if access roads were built. I recommend that construction of such access roads be made a No. 1 public-works project by the Islands themselves.

AGRICULTURE

One of the firmest bases of America's strength and prosperity is her agricultural production. As a Nation, we produce the food we eat, and more. But the reverse is true with the Virgin Islands. The tables of exports and imports of foodstuffs submitted by the Agriculture Department tell their own story.

I may be rushing in where angels fear to tread, but I would like to express a word of caution about too great an emphasis on cattle raising at the expense of crop production. The largest landowner on St. Croix, not excluding VICORP, has a splendid herd of cattle. A highly successful industrialist on the mainland, he is developing a new strain of cattle that are peculiarly adaptable to the recurrent drought, and resultant grazing conditions, of the islands.

This is a splendid enterprise and he has made and is continuing to make truly great contributions to the Virgin Islands. Yet on his 5,000-acre estate, which comprises nearly one tenth of the land area of St. Croix (51,400 acres according to the Department of Agriculture report), he employs but 60 men on a full-time basis. The 1950 Bureau of Census report shows that 8,269 persons were employed for the Virgin Islands as a whole that year. St. Croix's population was 12,103 out of a total of 26,665, or roughly 45 percent of the total.

In all probability, employment on St. Croix was at about the same rate as employment on the other islands, and so we can conclude that there was a labor force of, roughly, 3,700 there. Thus the estate owner held approximately 10 percent of the land but employed only about 2 percent of the working population. However, he gives considerably greater seasonable employment, and has brought substantial sums into St. Croix.

I want to repeat: I am not being critical of cattle raising for the Virgin Islands, nor of the particular estate owner. I merely want to point out that there may be economic danger in giving over increasingly large areas of potential cropland to the raising of cattle, as the Department of Agriculture report states is happening.

Two-PARTY SYSTEM

In connection with the new organic act and consequent increase in responsibilities, both political and economic, for the people of the Virgin Islands and their elected representatives, it is earnestly to be hoped that a true two-party system, with party responsibility, can be furthered and developed. Under the present system, far too much depends upon the individual popularity of an individual legislator in his own limited district. Once in the legislature, he is responsible only to them and to himself, sometimes feeling little or no responsibility to the people of other islands or even of other districts.

The development of the party system, with party programs and party responsibility, would be the greatest possible forward step in the political development of the people of the Virgin Islands.

POSTSCRIPT "Too MUCH TOO SOON"

The Virgin Islands are truly beautiful and in many ways all Americans can be proud of them. I am genuinely fond of the Islands and their people, and I regret to have to report some of the facts I have had set forth. Perhaps I may have given undue emphasis to the faults and short-comings of the Virgin Islands government, but it is essential that we face up to the situation.

The fault does not by any means lie wholly with the people and the legislators they have elected-both white and colored. It lies to an equally large extent with the highly paternalistic policies of the administration in office for the past 20 years and, ultimately of course, with us in the Congress.

We have been guilty of "too much, too soon" with respect to the Virgin Islands: Too much money appropriated for them without wise planning; too much responsibility thrust upon the people in the way of unwarranted imitation of the elaborate system of government we have evolved on the mainland without adequate preparation and safeguards.

I have great confidence and hope in the new Governor and the new approach he will make to the islands. I am hopeful that the new organic act can be a boost along the way for him and his aides, and for my friends and fellow Americans-the people of the Virgin Islands. HUGH BUTLER,

United States Senator from Nebraska, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

WASHINGTON 1954.

PART II

STATEMENTS REGARDING PROPOSED ORGANIC ACT LEGISLATION SUBMITTED AT CONFERENCE HEARINGS IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS AND IN WASHINGTON

PRESS RELEASE ON SENATOR BUTLER'S INTRODUCTION OF ORGANIC ACT BILLS (JULY 8, 1953)

VIRGIN ISLANDS ORGANIC ACT BILLS

PRESENTED BY SENATOR HUGH BUTLER

SENATE INTERIOR COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ANNOUNCES HEARINGS IN ISLANDS DURING RECESS

Senator Hugh Butler (Republican, of Nebraska), chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, today introduced three measures for revision of the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, and at the same time announced that hearings on the measures would be held in the islands during the recess of the Senate.

The text of the Nebraska Senator's statement made on the floor of the Senate in introducing the bills is as follows:

"Mr. President, I send forward for appropriate reference three measures which I am introducing by request. Each of these bills deals with the same subject matter, namely, revision of the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of the United States. One of these measures is suggested by the Department of the Interior, another by the St. Thomas Chamber of Commerce of the Virgin Islands, and the third was sent to me by the Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands. The legislative assembly is composed of the popularly elected representatives of the people of the islands.

It goes without saving that I do not necessarily favor any of these three measures in their entirety. However, I think the views of the groups sponsoring each are entitled to careful consideration by the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and by the Members of the Senate.

It is my firm intention as chairman of the committee to hold hearings this fall in the Virgin Islands on these measures during the recess of the Congress, and to give the matter early consideration in the 2d session of the 83d Congress.

As the Members of the Senate will recall, the Virgin Islands are the former Danish West Indies which were ceded to the United States by Denmark in the treaty of January 25, 1917, for $25 million. From then until 1931, the affairs of the islands were administered by officers of the Navy who were named as Governor by the President.

On February 27, 1931, President Hoover took the progressive step of placing the Virgin Islands under civilian jurisdiction, transferring administrative responsibility for them from the Navy to the Department of the Interior under Executive Order No. 5556. The present organic act, or basic charter of civil government, was enacted by the Congress in 1936. The islands have progressed greatly, both politically and economically, in the 17 years since the present organic act, and the governmental structure needs streamlining and modernization. It is my belief that the bill which will be reported by the committee after the hearings can result in substantial savings to the taxpayers of the United States.

I should point out that similar bills to those I am now sending forward have already been introduced in the House. H. R. 5835, introduced by Mr. Saylor, is the measure drafted and recommended by the legislative assembly; H. R. 5608, also introduced by Mr. Saylor, is the measure of the chamber of commerce; and H. R. 5181, introduced by the chairman of the House Interior Committee, Mr. Miller, is the measure proposed by the Department of the Interior.

45177-54-3

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