Somnolent Samoa

Last month retiring Governor George A. Alexander of the U.S. island of Guam proudly reported to his Navy superiors that after five years of begging his 19,500 subjects to run for office and cajoling them into attending sessions once they were elected, he had at last filled all 16 seats in the upper House, all 27 seats in the lower House of his "advisory" Congress of Guam. Last week, hoping to find something more creditable to U. S. imperialism, newshawks dug up Governor Otto C. Dowling's fat report on U. S. Samoa, the single typewritten copy of which had been lying in the files of the Navy Department for seven months, unnoticed. Achievements of the U. S. in Samoa:

"Due to lack of sufficient white teachers the use of the English language is very limited and is nothing like what it should be after 35 years of American occupation. . . . Money expended per year, per pupil, $9.42. . . . The agricultural school . . . has not proven successful, the Samoan boys disliking hard work of farm life without pay, and remaining but a short time. . . . The experiment, therefore, has been abandoned. . . . Similarly a saw mill provided by the Department of Agriculture has not been a success, not a single board being sawn to order of the natives. . . . As it was rapidly deteriorating and becoming nonusable, the saw mill was sold. . . . The Samoans do not take a great interest in the Department of Agriculture . . . administered by the chief radio electrician. . . . The annual Fono [Islands' native council] recommended that the selling and serving of beer to young men under 18, and all women, be prohibited. . . . Subsequently this was enacted into law. . . . Since beer has been made legal, conditions have improved. . . . The illegal manufacture of 'bush beer' has been completely done away with. . . . Samoans do not carry alcohol as well as ordinary white persons. . . . The Samoans, particularly the young men, were addicted to rock throwing. . . . This habit culminated in one death. . . . The assailant was sentenced to three years in jail. . . . There has been very little trouble with rock throwing since that time. . . ."

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