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 THE WEST INDIES 
 
 JS SEEN BT A 
 
 Christian Statesnnan 
 
 A brief review of the economic, social, 
 and religious situation in the West 
 Indies, by William Oxley Thom pson, 
 D.D., Moderator of the General 
 Assembly, 1926-1927. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/westindiesasseenOOthom 
 
THE WEST INDIES AS SEEN BY A 
 CHRISTIAN STATESMAN 
 
 An Englishman once remarked to me that he always had been 
 ^glad that England was an island. This required the English 
 people, as he said, to think in world terms. They were bound to 
 measure themselves by the service they rendered to others. It was 
 obvious that the island itself could not live and sustain a pro¬ 
 gressive civilization unless it made desirable and profitable con¬ 
 tacts with the outlying world. This remark is probably the key 
 to situations in England other than the economic or the indus¬ 
 trial. It has, doubtless, affected her international relations and, 
 to a considerable degree, her colonial policy. 
 
 There was a day, however, when this was not true. All na¬ 
 tions seemed to proceed upon the theory of exploitation. Among 
 these, Spain should not be overlooked. For four hundred years, 
 she had complete colonial control over the West Indies, Haiti 
 excepted; likewise, these islands enjoyed the theory of a single 
 church. Denominational zeal and rivalry had no place in their 
 program. During a considerable portion of this time, if not for 
 all of it, there was a sufficient coordination of both Church and 
 State to make possible joint enterprises. I was told, for example, 
 by intelligent citizens that churches were built just as bridges 
 were, that is to say, out of public revenues. Every Protestant 
 
 3 
 
church in the world has been built by voluntary contributions— 
 a most significant difference. 
 
 As one travels through these islands, abundant evidences are 
 seen of the commanding place the Spanish occupied in the con¬ 
 trol and direction of the activities of the people. A great fort, 
 such as we see at Havana, represented in those days an enormous 
 undertaking. Labor, materials and construction were of the most 
 permanent sort. They are without value at the present. These 
 were associated with Spanish castles, the homes of the “grandees,” 
 as they are sometimes called. The remnants of the original road 
 through these islands show skill in civil engineering and no end 
 of available labor. One would readily suppose that a people with 
 such capacity, such financial resources, such engineering ability 
 would soon have discovered a wiser and more modern policy in 
 these islands than was ever developed. 
 
 It is to be noted that the islands are filled with populations 
 quite as large as the methods of cultivation can support. In fact, 
 an island like Porto Rico recognizes that it is overpopulated. 
 The industrial opportunity is not sufficient to maintain a larger 
 population and there is little prospect that a diversity of modern 
 industry will ever be sufficient to warrant any considerable in¬ 
 crease in the population. In Cuba, the situation is somewhat 
 better because the “Pearl of the Antilles” is the richest in pro¬ 
 ductive power, resources and available wealth. Haiti represents 
 today the deepest poverty and probably gives promise of the 
 least attractive immediate future. Whether these hookworm- 
 ridden, lethargic people, a mingling of Spanish and African 
 blood, with medieval French civilization, can be transformed 
 into enterprising, ambitious toilers for trade remains to be seen. 
 The investment of millions by others than the people themselves 
 
 4 
 
will be necessary before even transportation will be possible. The 
 splendid highway from Port au Prince to Santo Domingo is the 
 first effort toward this end. Conditions are better in the eastern 
 portion of the island where the Dominican Republic holds gov¬ 
 ernmental sway; here Spanish traditions prevail. This is a nat¬ 
 urally rich area, profuse in its production, but handicapped by 
 the long period of slavery and suppression. 
 
 Porto Rico, in the fortunes of the Spanish-American war, 
 came to the United States and is now a detached portion of our 
 territory. Technically, it is an unorganized territory. Certain 
 officials appointed by the President of the United States furnish 
 our contact with this beautiful and attractive island. The inaug¬ 
 uration of the American public school system was a most sig¬ 
 nificant beginning. The establishment of certain political ma¬ 
 chinery gave Porto Rico at least the forms of government pro¬ 
 vided for in our constitution. It is reported, however, that these 
 Porto Rican people, ambitious for self-government, neglect the 
 ballot even more than the people in the States with longer ex¬ 
 perience. The result is that a supervising government seems a 
 necessity. In Cuba, where an independent republic was another 
 outcome of the Spanish-American war, we have a struggle to¬ 
 ward self-realization and self-government, with the United 
 States Government lying to the North ready to intervene under 
 the Platt Amendment, in case necessity should arise. This is a 
 sort of insurance against the emergencies of inexperience. 
 
 There are, however, certain conditions common to all these 
 islands which may be regarded as the legitimate result of the 
 four centuries of exploitation both by State and Church. There 
 are the extremes of wealth and poverty. There are the abundant 
 provisions for the necessities and conveniences of the rich, with 
 
 5 
 
an almost total lack of provision for the needs of the poor. The 
 theory seems to have obtained that the servant was for the con¬ 
 venience of the master. The poor could exercise the grace of 
 gratitude for small favors presumably thankfully received. Own¬ 
 ership of the soil naturally drifted into the hands of the more 
 favored class. The direction of energies was always within their 
 control. The Church seems to have been no better than the 
 State. So far as these people were served at all in the matters 
 of religion, it was through an imported priesthood, schooled in 
 Spanish traditions, with no definite plan for the progress of the 
 people. In too many cases, this priesthood was a temporary, pass¬ 
 ing experience, returning to the native country at their own 
 pleasure, or when the accumulation of funds assured them of a 
 more congenial, ecclesiastical fellowship in their native country. 
 Under these conditions, the neglect of the people does not de¬ 
 scribe the situation. The situation, therefore. In a land like 
 these islands, where Nature is lavish with her fruits and prod¬ 
 ucts, affords an easy opportunity for the combination of luxury 
 and poverty, of virtue and vice, and of a moral situation intol¬ 
 erable to any mind having a just conception either of the Church 
 or State. Both these agencies lacked the outlook of public wel¬ 
 fare or of a sound theory of either religion or politics. 
 
 As a consequence, we find the great majority, particularly in 
 the rural districts, exposed to the evils of hookworm, tuberculosis, 
 and diseases due to the vices of men. The entailments of these 
 diseases upon a people, anaemic both by disease and poverty, ren¬ 
 der any public progress impossible until a thorough reorganiza¬ 
 tion takes place at the base of society. The sanitary conditions, 
 or rather the lack of sanitary conditions, the lack of local water 
 supply, and the limited food supply, together with an enervating 
 
 6 
 
climate, make the situation less hopeful than one might desire. 
 This is fundamentally the reason for providing, in the very first 
 instance, both cleanliness and godliness. 
 
 The American occupation which came after the Spanish-Amer- 
 ican war provided the first opportunity for an organized effort 
 on the part of the Protestant forces to join with the United 
 States Government in doing the essential, foundation things prec¬ 
 edent to all progress. Spain had never developed the initiative or 
 individual powers of the people. They knew nothing of the free¬ 
 dom so essential to political integrity and even the Church had 
 treated the people simply as beneficiaries. It was, in a sense, a 
 pay-as-you-go policy. If they did not have the price, they did not 
 pay. The advance in prices oftentimes rendered a home on earth 
 and a home in Heaven alike an impossibility. The natural result 
 is that illegitimacy competed with legitimacy. The moral confu¬ 
 sion arising from such unauthorized mingling of the sexes led 
 quite naturally to a degeneration of all social idealism. From the 
 religious point of view, the Church was a method of escape 
 rather than an opportunity for a better life. 
 
 The Church, like the State, during these four centuries failed 
 to develop the nativ^e talent of public or professional service. It 
 never seems to have occurred to the Church that a native priest¬ 
 hood would be an asset to the Church. The patronizing policy 
 of a foreign priesthood seems to have been regarded as adequate 
 to the situation. However, when the Protestant forces entered, 
 the policy was immediately changed. They introduced as the 
 very basis of society the theory of individual development. We 
 are quite apt to think of this as the legitimate outcome of the 
 Christian point of view. It appears not to have been so with our 
 Catholic brethren. The Protestant point of view was, and is, 
 
 7 
 
the development of the individual. This means, of course, the 
 moral responsibility of every individual to God. It means his 
 equality with his own brother at the throne of grace; it means 
 his own initiative in spiritual living; it means the mastery of his 
 own conscience, since God alone is Lord of the conscience; it 
 means a certain freedom, not only spiritually, but socially and 
 otherwise. What may be termed a Protestant view of Chris¬ 
 tianity makes for strong individuals while urging with tremend¬ 
 ous emphasis the obligations of brotherly kindliness and the op¬ 
 portunity for organized cooperation. The mutual burden-bearing 
 which fulfills the law of Christ is an ever-present opportunity. 
 The gospel of helpfulness is consistent only with respect for the 
 integrity of the individual. 
 
 As a result of this new theory in these islands, the Protestant 
 forces began the erection of churches, the organization of the 
 people, the fundamental teaching in the Sunday school, and in 
 other schools to a limited degree or as a temporary measure until 
 the government forces should make adequate provision and, in 
 general, the development of the social and moral ideals common 
 to the Protestant forces in the United States. 
 
 As a fruit of these endeavors, one can now see in every Prot¬ 
 estant center an improved condition as to health, as to social 
 ideals, as to an appreciation of the integrity of the home, the 
 unity of the family, not to mention the maintenance of standards 
 of personal virtue. The release of new energy through the agency 
 of the Protestant churches has found an expression in spiritual, 
 moral, and industrial idealism quite in harmony with the finest 
 spirit of progress among Protestant peoples anywhere on the 
 earth. This revelation demonstrates our opportunity. If we are 
 in earnest in our desire to see these people come forward and take 
 
 8 
 
their places in a modern civilization, the development of char¬ 
 acter and of idealism lies at the very basis of all our activities. 
 The danger is, as always, from the commercialization of our 
 ideals either in politics or industry, or both. The missionary 
 spirit in the Church is the key to progress and the solution of 
 the problems of ignorance, dependency and disease. This spir¬ 
 itual impulse may find expression through hospital service or a 
 school service administered by the State or under the forms of 
 secular government. The beneficient results, however, should 
 still be credited to the original missionary and Christian impulse 
 with the upward and forward look. The Protestant churches, 
 therefore, are entitled to know that their representatives have 
 been laying foundations, have been planting fruit-bearing trees, 
 and have been doing a lot of other things that have borne no 
 evil fruits. The stimulus has been so strong that everywhere in 
 Porto Rico today Protestantism bears a good name. This is true 
 also in Cuba and in other places in the West Indies. 
 
 A brief generation of experience has demonstrated clearly that 
 the supreme need of these people was spiritual illumination. The 
 bread and butter philosophy of some current economics has been 
 set aside. We have demonstrated that the gospel of Christ can 
 be preached to the poor with power and efficiency. It was the 
 gospel first and an improved social order afterward. This makes 
 it entirely clear that the fundamental need in a mission field is 
 the cross of Christ. The preacher should have his church in 
 order to bring this gospel clearly and forcibly to the people. The 
 philosophy that would begin with a mowing machine or a tractor 
 does not meet the situation. The greatest asset in the West In¬ 
 dies today is a competent, conscientious and clear-headed mis¬ 
 sionary of Christ. 
 
 9 
 
The Protestant churches have done fairly well in the erection 
 of buildings. They have not done so well as one might desire. It 
 is not improper to keep in mind that in our missionary endeavor 
 the church building representing Protestanism, while not com¬ 
 peting with cathedrals, should, at the same time, be suggestive of 
 reverence, of respect for religion, of self-respect among the peo¬ 
 ple, and of such strength as would give the consciousness of stabil¬ 
 ity to the people. The worst possible extravagance for the Protest¬ 
 ant churches would be a carelessly constructed church building. 
 The appeal, therefore, that comes from such a group as the 
 Union Church in Havana should meet a cordial response from 
 individual Christian people abundantly able to honor God and 
 serve their generation in assisting to construct a suitable house 
 of worship for the English-speaking people, many of whom are 
 only temporarily resident. The situation in San Juan is some¬ 
 what different, but essentially the same. If it is not true at pres¬ 
 ent, it soon will be true that a similar situation Atdll be developed 
 in the city centers throughout the West Indies. Furthermore, 
 throughout the rural district, which includes, of course, villages 
 and small cities, the need for the church building is quite im¬ 
 perative, tbe ability locally to provide such buildings is markedly 
 less. This situation and the call for a capital account should in 
 no way interfere with our gifts for ordinary current expenses and 
 the further development of Protestant opportunities. 
 
 The second charactertistic feature of the Protestant movement 
 has been the development of a native ministry. It was my pleas¬ 
 ure to meet and greet a large number of these men as it is now 
 my pleasure to testify to their efficiency. One sees everywhere 
 the evidence of Christian evangelism and pastoral care. They 
 have developed organizations reasonably adequate to the needs 
 
 10 
 
of the local church. They are steadily learning the lesson of co¬ 
 operation between churches and the value of organized Christi¬ 
 anity. They are, in a way, the pioneer men of the West Indies. 
 Whatever of supervision has been provided from the United 
 States has always been consistent with the greatest local develop¬ 
 ment of the native ministry. Much could be said in appreciation 
 of and in praise of, the representatives of Protestantism who 
 have given years of service in these islands. The attitude of the 
 people toward the church and their happiness in the service is 
 most gratifying. 
 
 Mention should be made perhaps of the effort originally made 
 by the women of the Presbyterian Church for the erection of 
 hospitals and the provision of medical service so much needed 
 throughout the West Indies. The Presbyterian Hospital at San 
 Juan is perhaps the outstanding institution among such endeav¬ 
 ors. Here one observes the presence of native Porto Rican girls 
 trained as professional nurses; also native Porto Rican young 
 men as internes: the Protestant forces brought a new con¬ 
 ception of the service of the gospel to these islands. Beautiful 
 for location, well-appointed for professional service, with a 
 clinic accommodating an average of one thousand persons per 
 week, the hospital needs an ample and suitable home for nurses. 
 Some generous soul is much needed in the interests of suffering 
 humanity and a highly efficient service to meet this need. 
 
 One should not overlook the fact that an Evangelical Theo¬ 
 logical Seminary for the education and preparation of young 
 men for the ministry and for other forms of Christian service is 
 a commanding force for Protestantism among these people. The 
 privilege of addressing a group of about seventy-five men pre¬ 
 paring for the ministry was highly appreciated. A conference 
 
 11 
 
showed clearly the moral enthusiasm and spiritual earnestness of 
 these young men. We are in the way of developing a competent 
 native ministry that in the future will be able to carry on 
 throughout these islands. In other words, under present policies, 
 we are engaged in a temporary rather than an age-long service. 
 Unless we shall fail of our opportunity, there will be in the West 
 Indies a native church equipped with native ministry and op¬ 
 erated through native intelligence. This is the great goal of the 
 Protestant Church. No fanciful theories of organized church 
 union need occupy our minds for the present. The substantial 
 unity, however, of all Protestant forces in these islands and the 
 spirit of cooperation already well developed give great promise 
 for the future. 
 
 BOARD OF NATIONAL MISSIONS 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 4-27-I-4M