er, is more populous. Haiti is thickly
inhabited, with 2,500,000 people, of whom only 5,000 are foreigners, and
of these, not more than 1,000 are whites. The island is incredibly
fertile. A century and a quarter ago it was rich, and could be rich
again. Its coffee crop, alone, could bring in ample wealth.

To Stuart's eyes, coffee was everywhere. The carts were loaded with
coffee, the sacks the negroes carried were coffee-sacks, the shining
green berries were exposed to dry on stretches of sailcloth in vacant
lots, among the ruins on the sides of the streets. Haitian coffee is
among the best in the world, but the Haitian tax is so high that the
product cannot be marketed cheaply, the American public will not pay the
high prices it commands, and nearly all the crop is shipped to Europe.

"Look at that coffee!" Stuart's father had exclaimed, just a week
before. "Where do you suppose it comes from, Stuart? From cultivated
plantations? Very little of it. Most of the crop is picked from
half-wild shrubs which are the descendants of the carefully planted and
cultivated shrubs which still linger on the plantations established
under French rule, a century and a half ago. A hundred years of negro
power in Haiti has stamped deterioration, dirt and decay on the
island."

"But that'll all change, now we've taken charge of the republic!" had
declared Stuart, confident that the golden letters "U. S." would bring
about the millennium.

His father had wrinkled his brows in perplexity and doubt.

"It would change, my boy," he said, "if America had a free hand. But she
hasn't."

"Why not?"

"Because, officially, we have only stepped in to help the Haitians
arrive at 'self-determination.' The treaty calls for our aid for ten
years, with a possibility of continuing that protection for another ten
years. But we're not running the country, we're only policing it and
advising the Haitians as to how things should be handled."

"Do you think they'll learn?"

"To govern themselves, you mean? Yes. To govern themselves in a
civilized manner? No. I wouldn't go so far as to say that slavery or
peonage are the only ways to make the up-country Haitian negro work,
though a good many people who have studied conditions here think so.

"The program of the modern business man in Haiti is different: Make the
negro discontented with his primitive way of living, give him a taste
for unnecessary luxuries, teach him to envy his neighbor's wealth and