an allotment of funds appropriated by the island government. That point was raised when the question of maintenance came up. Lieutenant Governor CRAMER. May I add this, that there is a difference between a lump-sum allotment for maintenance and an allotment set up with exceedingly detailed specifications. Mr. HARE. The Federal Government goes into details with its allotments. Lieutenant Governor CRAMER. Yes, sir. Mr. HARE. Then, why should not the municipal council have the same right to designate the purpose, or point out the details, or make specific allotments of the funds they provide? Lieutenant Governor CRAMER. I think the Interior Department's draft accords with your view exactly. Previously the governor has had the power to veto parts of bills-not items of money bills, but parts of bills that have been passed; and in the exercise of that power he has done something which is not quite in keeping with what we understand in the United States as being the single item veto of an appropriation bill. I believe that is the fact, and in the Interior Department's draft of the bill, we have indicated that we were in accord with the idea that the governor's veto power should be limited to what we know in the United States as the single-item veto. At the present time every veto, or every action of the governor on any money bill, or on any act of the local legislature has been subsequently subject to the action of the President. Every bill passed there and every veto is forwarded through the Secretary of the Interior to the President, and the President may exercise or may not exercise his right of approving or disapproving the governor's action. Therefore, the veto complained of was not something that the governor did without anybody's knowledge, it was something that was subject to subsequent control by other agencies. Mr. GOLDEN. There is some question as to the veto under the executive order, or giving that power. I do not think it is generally known, but the legislature objected, and it has always been a question of contention between them as to the veto of a part of the business. I do not say that it was illegal, but it was a claim of executive power to legislate over the head of the legislature. The CHAIRMAN. We will now hear you, Mr. Andersen. STATEMENT OF F. ANDERSEN, ISLAND OF ST. CROIX The CHAIRMAN. Do you still live at St. Croix? Mr. ANDERSEN. No, sir; for the past year I have not lived at St. Croix, but I am very much interested in the islands. I lived there for nearly 20 years, and during that period I have been a member of the legislature. The CHAIRMAN. You are the manager of the largest plantation there? Mr. ANDERSEN. I was the manager of the largest employing plantation there. The CHAIRMAN. Is that plantation now closed? I have not come to talk about that, sir, but I have come to support the delegates from the Virgin Islands in their efforts to get a more suitable and better organic act for the islands. I am very much in sympathy with them, and I think they deserve it. I think the act proposed for them is a step forward. I am particularly in sympathy with them in regard to their request for a definite expression as to the powers of their municipal committee. The municipal committee is the standing committee of the colonial council passing upon all fiscal affairs. It functioned very satisfactorily during the years that I was there, and it can be exceedingly useful to the Executive if he will listen to them, because it is composed wholly of the most experienced men in the council, and that means the most experienced men in the islands. Then I would like to say, also, that I am very sympathetic with them in their request for a Resident Commissioner in Washington. It is true that the islands are small, and it may seem unreasonable to incur that expenditure for such a small number of people. However, to me it is largely a matter of principle. It is a question of having representation when legislation is undertaken that will affect them. I entirely agree with Senator Bingham, the chairman, and I can say that no legislation during his term in office has been adopted without giving the islands a hearing. However, harmful legislation before that time had been enacted and extended to the islands, probably with no intention on the part of Congress to do any harm to the islands, but because there was no one in Congress to watch their interests and prevent such a thing happening. Therefore, I think a Resident Commissioner from that point of view alone is very necessary. Mr. HARE. Do you think the islands are economically prepared to bear the expense incident to the creation of that office? Mr. ANDERSEN. Eventually I think they will be. To begin with, the Resident Commissioner probably will have to be paid out of the Federal funds, as I understand some of the other Resident Commissioners are. However, I think that the expense of the Resident Commissioner would be justified, and that he would be of great aid to the Congress of the United States, and especially to the appropriations committees, and that the expense of maintaining such an expert from the islands would save the Congress more than his salary in Federal appropriations for the islands. Mr. HARE. Don't you think it would be in keeping with the custom that with a Resident Commissioner here, paid by the Federal Government, he would be inclined to try and get more Federal aid for the islands and reduce the local taxation in the islands? Mr. ANDERSEN. It is possible, but not necessarily if it is a high type of party. Another reason why I think he is necessary is that there is no continuity of policy in the administration of the islands. They were under the Danish flag, and later for 16 years under the American flag. During that period of 16 years the islands have had eight governors, and there have been very largely new aides to the governor each time. That has meant that the islands, in the absence of control by some organization or some department in Washington shaping colonial policies, have been subject to whatever policy the executive laid down, according to his own particular viewpoints. Mr. HARE. Did I understand you correctly to say that the islands have had eight governors in 16 years? Mr. ANDERSEN. Eight governors in 16 years; yes, sir; and that means also new staffs for the governors. Mr. HARE. How do you account for that frequent change? Mr. ANDERSEN. Because during the Navy administration it was apparently not possible to give naval officers a term of more than two years. Then the governors, if they were appointed from active duty, would not remain idle for more than two years. That meant that a man would come down, and before he got a bearing on the situation and began to understand the complex problems of the islands, it would be almost time for him to leave. Then a new man. came, and he had other views. There was no definite policy laid. down from Washington. Congress had not created any colonial office or bureau for the care of these colonial possessions, as it had for the other outlying tropical possessions, and while they had their resident commissioners who could speak for them, and who were residents and inhabitants of these possessions, the Virgin Islands had not. Consequently the views of the people could not so easily be presented before Congress as they would have been if they had had such a commissioner. Mr. HARE. You think the resident commissioner would not be changed every two years? Mr. ANDERSEN. I do not think so; because the people would soon find out the usefulness of having the same man up here for years. I am sure that such a commissioner could have prevented many harmful things that have been extended to the islands. Mr. HARE. They have not always realized that in the States. [Laughter.] Mr. ANDERSEN. I know; but there is such a difference between these tropical possessions and the conditions in the States, where they are more or less acquainted with the people and the climate, that it is much more necessary to have a representative from such islands. I have just one more point. In regard to the much-discussed veto power, I have discussed that at times with the late Judge Stokemann of the islands, and he was of the opinion that during the Danish administration the governor did not have such veto power. But immediately after the transfer, as a war measure, the President of the United States issued an executive order giving the governor for the period of the war, as I understand-I have never seen that order-that veto power. That veto power has never been sanctioned by any act of Congress, and that is what the gentlemen here are somewhat aggrieved about. It was based upon an executive order which was issued as a war measure, and which, of course, we knew all about at that time. But it was continued for so long a time after the war that Congress should now, in this organic act, definitely and decidedly determine what veto powers the governor should have. That is the situation as far as my experience goes. I would like to say also, in regard to taxation, that the resources of these islands are very, very slender, and the resources have become, I would say, smaller due to some legislation that has been extended to the islands without hearings, such as the Volstead Act and the immigration act of the United States. It is evident that any community that within 10 years loses approximately one-third of its population, and the best part of its population, is in a state of decadence, and that extension of the United States immigration laws, therefore, to an island like St. Croix, which lives on agricultural pursuits, must tend to reduce the acreage in cultivation. Mr. HARE. Let me make this observation: The representative here yesterday said, in response to an inquiry that I made, that as a result of emigration there was a scarcity of labor on the islands. Now, if there is a scarcity of labor, then the supply must be less than the demand. Mr. ANDERSEN. Yes. Mr. HARE. If there is a demand for an increase in the number of laborers, how do you account for the fact that they continue to leave? If there is an increased demand, I should think there would be an increase in the rate of wages, and there would not be such a continued exodus. Mr. ANDERSEN. No; but that has always been the case. Mr. HARE. Notwithstanding that? Mr. ANDERSEN. Yes, sir; also in the Danish time; because the people of the Virgin Islands have received a very good education. Mr. HARE. Part of the exodus is not due entirely to economic conditions? Mr. ANDERSEN. No. It is simply because a large number of the people are educated to positions which the islands can not offer them, and therefore they seek elsewhere for employment. Now, when the best of the people go away from the islands, it becomes gradually impossible to keep sufficient of the acreage of the islands under cultivation. That was what my company suffered from. Mr. HARE. You might make the criticism, then, that they are being educated away from the Islands? Mr. ANDERSEN. Yes. Mr. WILLIAMS. Pardon me; you made the statement there that that was the reason your business was suffering; that you could not get all the labor you wanted? Mr. ANDERSEN. No; we could not get all the labor. That was one of the reasons why the acreage in cultivation fell off so immensely. In 1916, when the islands were taken over by the United States, there was approximately 14,000 acres of uncultivated land surface, and around fifty in cultivation. To-day there are not more than two or three thousand acres under cultivation. Now, out of such a small acreage it is utterly impossible to hope for the collection of revenues to the extent of supporting a $200,000 government. But, on the other side, it is not entirely unreasonable that the Federal Government should carry some of the burdens of government, because in that group of islands there are also Federal activities among the administrative departments. There is such a thing as the customs service; there has been prohibition enforcement service, and there are numerous other things which the Federal Government carries on its pay roll and which the States in the Union do not directly carry. So, as long as there is an intermingling of Federal activities and purely municipal administration, it is not so very easy to grasp the large amount required from you gentlemen up here. The last time I was up here I suggested that appropriations be made for definite purposes, because then you would see exactly what were purely municipal activities and what were more or less Federal duties. The CHAIRMAN. We have done that in the present appropriation act. Mr. ANDERSEN. Well, I think that is a step forward, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. The appropriation act as it passed the House last December, and which is now before the Senate, provides: TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT FOR THE VIRGIN ISLANDS For salaries of the governor, judge of the district court, and employees incident to the execution of the act of March 3, 1917 (U. S. C., title 48, sec. 1391), traveling expenses of officers and employees while absent from place of duty on official business, necessary janitor service, care of Federal grounds, repair and preservation of Federal buildings and furniture, purchase of equipment, stationery, lights, water, and other necessary miscellaneous expenses, including not to exceed $4,000 for purchase, including exchange, maintenance, repair, and operation of motorpropelled passenger-carrying vehicles, and not to exceed $4,000 for personal services, household equipment and furnishings, fuel, ice, and electricity necessary in the operation of Government House at Saint Thomas and Government House at Saint Croix; $134,750. For salaries and expenses of the agricultural experiment station and the vocational school in the Virgin Islands, including technical personnel, clerks, and other persons; scientific investigations of plants and plant industries and diseases of animals; demonstrations in practical farming; official traveling expenses; fixtures, apparatus, and supplies; clearing and fencing of land; and other necessary expenses, including not to exceed $2,000 for purchase, including exchange, maintenance, repair, and operation of motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles, $25,000. For defraying the deficits in the treasuries of the municipal governments because of the excess of current expenses over current revenues for the fiscal year 1934, municipality of Saint Thomas and Saint John, $105,000, and municipality of Saint Croix, $105,000; in all, $210,000: Provided, That the amount herein appropriated for each municipal government shall be expended only if an equivalent amount is raised by municipal revenues and applied to the operating costs of the respective government, except that for the fiscal year 1934 the contribution to either municipal government shall not be less than $100,000: Provided further, That should the revenues of the municipality of Saint Thomas and Saint John, during the fiscal year 1934, exceed $105,000, and/or the revenues of the municipality of Saint Croix exceed $105,000, such excess revenues may be expended for municipal improvements and operating costs of the municipalities under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe. For such projects for the further development of agriculture and industry, and for promoting the general welfare of the islands as may be approved by the President including the acquisition by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, of land and the construction of buildings for use in administering the affairs of the islands; the purchase of land for sale as homesteads to citizens of the Virgin Islands; and the making of loans for the construction of buildings, for the purchase of farming implements and equipment, and for other expenses incident to the cultivation of land purchased for resale as homesteads, $15,000, and in addition thereto the unexpended balance of the appropriation for the temporary government for the Virgin Islands, contained in the Interior Department appropriation act, fiscal year 1933. That provides a total of $384,750, of which a little more than half is for defraying the deficits in the treasuries of the municipal govern ments. While we are on that subject, the Budget lays down for that $134,750 a very definite table. That is what I presume the governor referred to when he said that there was no choice as to how that should be spent, because that was laid down in the Budget. Lieutenant Governor CRAMER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. I notice that the Budget requested for the grand total for the central administration is $187,780. That was cut by the House committee, was it? Lieutenant Governor CRAMER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Was it specified as to where the cut should apply? 157177-33——7 |