OCCUPIED HAITI

Balch, Emily Greene
The Writers Publishing Co., NY, 1927
Also: Negro University Press (reprint), NY, 1969

Bob Corbett's Notes

• This was a group of WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.) that went to Haiti to do a study. Very short visit.
• Chapter I: Something of the background by Emily Greene Balch recommends Leger ch 18/19 on foreign adventurism and 232-234
  • Leger is a major source for her
  • Very light overview essay. Says virtually nothing of general interest
• Chapter II: The Political History of the Occupation by Paul H. Douglass
  • P. 15. U.S. had been trying to negotiate a treaty for customs receivership. Why? Stop France?
  • Railroad dispute
  • P. 17/18 on disputer $500,000 withdrawal of funds by Marines in Dec. 1914
  • P. 20-21. Case against German and French threat
  • P. 23-24. Grounds for legal challenge to occupation's cover
  • Some detailed arguments of suspect U.S. practice.
• Chaper III. Economic and Financial Aspects of the American Occupation. by Paul H Douglas
  • P. 42 ff. Railroad story. Excellent source
  • Technical, detailed and useful article on economic aspects of the occupation
• Chapter IV Land and Living by Emily G. Balch
  • P. 57 2,000,000 population in 1924.
  • P. 62. Haiti products were shown at the World's Fair in St. Louis. (leger, p. 296-7)
  • Empty and superficial article
• Chapter V: Notes on the Land Situation In Haiti by Emily G. Balch
  • Nothing of interest.
• Chapter VI: Agriculture and the Occupation by Emily G. Balch.
  • Dr. Freeman oversaw the Dept. of Agriculture. He had cattle project which gave cow and wanted them to give back each alternate calf.
• Chapter VII: Health and Sanitation by Charlottle Atwood
  • Overview of the plans and description of disastrous situation.
• Chapter VIII: Problems of Education. by Zonia Baber and Emily G. Balch.
  • Americans wanted technical education. Haitians wanted classical education.
  • P. 104. "The whole situation is a tragic impasse. Each group stalemates the other. The Haitians are not willing to accept American control of education. The Americans, who hold the purse strings, are not willing to put any adequate sum into Haitian hands for Haitian-managed schools."
  • P. 93-94 footnote 1 for Russell's view of the situation. Informative.

    "The American point of view is given in General Russell's last report as High Commissioner.

    "Up to the time of the American Intervention, the entire school system of Haiti, from the primary grades up, emphasized classical studies, almost to the complete exclusion of industrial education. As a consequence, the children and young men of Haiti have been guided from, rather than toward, productive industry. This is the primary cause of the low productivity of Haiti, as contrasted to neighboring countries with soil no more fertile nor climate more favorable than that of Haiti. This emphasis of classical studies and practical exclusion of agricultural and industrial education has necessarily led to the creation of a class of young men who desire to take up professions and occupations such as law, medicine, commerce and clerical; a great portion of the latter seeking governmental positions. The members of this class do not know how to use their hands, and have no idea of the dignity of labor. As a result there is a regrettable shortage of agricultures and skilled workers. It is among such a class that revolutions are bred.

    "The population of Haiti is estimated at well over 2,000,000 of people. With improved sanitary conditions and methods of caring for the ill, which are now assured by the well established Department of Public Health, the population of Haiti will increase far more rapidly than in the past. Unless active steps are taken to increase the productivity, the cost of living is bound to advance, and the mass of the people to suffer therefrom."

• Chapter IX: Public Works by Emily G. Balch.
  • Little of interest.
• Chapter X: Racial Relations by Addie Hunton and Emily G. Balch.
  • Cites Blain Niles, p. 307-310 as saying occupation was good and bad, supported and attacked.
• Chapter XI: Charges of Abuse in Haiti by Emily G. Balch
  • P. 125 Useful paragraph on the corvee.

    "What happened was in brief that in order to get military roads built cheaply and quickly, the military authorities, in 1917, revived the legal but obsolete Haitian practise of forced labor for road-work. At first when the construction was near home there was little or no trouble, but when work came to be at a distance, unwilling workers were impressed, often very unfairly. They were sometimes manacled like slaves, compelled to work for weeks with little or no pay and inadequate food and shot down if they attempted to escape."

• Chapter XII: Public Order by Emily G. Balch
  • P. 128 interesting quote by Audain. General point: Occupation brought order and security. Claims that neither order or security were much compromised.

    "In the course of my long medical career I have only exceptionally met with vices against nature, fairly common among other people... I have always been struck with the rarity of suicide, infanticide and crimes of passion in Haiti... The Haitian has not innate destructive tendencies, or class hatreds with their savage results. Almost unknown to us are nocturnal attacks, ambush and assassination, great bands of bandits such as terrorize certain European cities and countries. Thieves abound it is true. It is sufficiently common to enter a house at night and rob it in good shape but if the thief is surprised he escapes as fast as he can, preferring to put off his attempt rather than attack the life of the owner. This absence in Haitians of the idea of murder creates a most appreciable sense of relative security in a country where nevertheless the policing of the country is badly organized. One can go without risk from one end of the country to the other, travel for days alone on deserted ways, plunge without fear into thick forests or scale the cliffs of our uninhabited mountains."

  • Quoted by Dantes Bellegarde. La Republique d'Haiti et les Etats Unis devant la Justice Internationale, p. 24.
  • March 6, 1926. 916 men and 59 officers in occupation, mainly in P-a-P and Okap.

  • P. 131: prophetic comment: "One meets the complaint in Haiti that the Americans are training not police, but soldiers, and one cannot help wondering what the effect of such a force would be after American withdrawl."

• Chapter XIII Judiciary and Civil Liberty by Grace D. Watson and Emily G. Balch
  • Neither the judiciary or education was under the occupation.
• Chapter XIV The Press and the Prison by Grace D. Watson and Emily G. Balch.
  • P. 143 useful: Press:
  • Total circulation: 5000
  • French tradition: opinion, not news. More tolerant of abusive language.
  • Always tends to be an opposition press.
  • U.S. command used Haitian judiciary to stop what they didn't like.
  • Such a move violated Roosevelt's 1918. passage cited, p. 146 Article XVI of the constitution says: "Everyone has the right to express his opinion on all matters, and to write, to print and to publish his thoughts. Writings shall not be submitted to previous censorship. Abuse of this right shall be defined and punished by the law, without thereby abridging in any way whatever the freedom of the press."
• Chapter XV. Conclusions and Recommendations: The committees.
  • U.S. in crisis of Caribbean policy.
    • A threat to liberty of small nations
    • A threat to liberty to its own citizens.
  • Basically -- get out and help Haiti. Financially while she works toward self-rule. Irony:
    • allows US is there to serve its own interests
    • asks it to put those aside, but it doesn't deal with that phenomenon.
• Appendix A: The Law in the Case
  • Summarizes the conclusions of Foreign Policy Associations April, 1922 report "The Seizure of Haiti by the United States."
• Appendix B: Chronological Summary of Haitian History, Previous to the American Occupation Leger is main source.
• Appendix C: A Haitian View of the Occupation
  • P. 177. Wonderful case on Bloody Haiti.
  • cacos war killed more than 10 or 20 Haitian "revolutions"
  • Fomented by foreigners for profit.
• Wonderful letter. Unsigned. I wonder if it could be Jean Price Mars?

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