SAMOA. 



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crches or day nurseries for children in New York, 

 Cincinnati, and Chicago; cheap-food depots and 

 cent meals ; cheap clothing and second-hand stores, 

 which are operated in Chicago, Philadelphia, 

 Newark, N. J., Jersey City, Brooklyn, Boston, 

 and other cities, have been very successful; salv- 

 age brigades for the collection of household and 

 office wash; wood-yards; employment bureaus; 

 Knights of Hope for prison visitation and ex- 

 criminals; winter relief; medical relief, including 

 free dispensaries; summer outings for the poor; 

 Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners; Missing 

 Friends and Inquiry Department; and farm col- 

 onies. Three of these farm colonies have been 

 established at Fort Amity, Col., where the tract 

 consists of 25,000 acres and great success has 

 been attained in raising cantaloups, sugar-beets, 

 and other crops; Fort Komie, in California; and 

 Fort Herrick, in Ohio. 



The report of similar benevolent work in Eng- 

 land for the twelve months ending with Decem- 

 ber, 1900, mentions 188 food depots and shelters 

 for men and women, providing 14,041 sleeping 

 accommodations, at which 3,946,000 beds and 

 6,137,000 meals were supplied during the year; 

 60 workshops and salvage brigades for temporary 

 employment of persons out of work, where 48,512 

 persons were given work; 36 labor bureaus, at 

 which 6,367 persons found situations; 17 chil- 

 dren's homes and day nurseries, sheltering 23,425 

 children; 12 farm colonies, occupying 25,562 acres 

 of land and having 650 colonists, including men, 

 women, and children; 132 slum posts; 11 homes 

 for ex-criminals, supplying 382 accommodations, 

 and through which 1,626 ex-criminals passed dur- 

 ing the year, with 1,393 "satisfactory" cases; 

 94 rescue homes for fallen women, with accommo- 

 dations for 1,937, sought during the year by 5,158 

 firls, 3,449 of whom proved satisfactory cases; 

 ,604 missing persons found during the year; and 

 59 other social institutions. These 609 institu- 

 tions were cared for by 2,294 officers and other 

 laborers. It is represented that at least 20 per 

 cent, should be added to these figures on account 

 of recently opened institutions from which returns 

 were not complete. The total income of the 

 Salvation Army is represented to be considerably 

 more than 1,000,000 sterling a year, and its 

 voluntary workers to number several hundred 

 thousand persons. 



SAMOA, a group of islands in the Pacific, 

 formerly a kingdom under the joint protection 

 and control of Germany, the United States, and 

 Great Britain, divided by treaty in 1900 between 

 Germany and the United States. Islands lying 

 west of the meridian of longitude 171 east of 

 Greenwich belong to Germany and islands lying 

 east of that meridian to the United States. The 

 Samoan act guaranteeing the independence and 

 neutrality of the islands was signed at a confer- 

 ence at Berlin in 1889. The arrangement, though 

 attended with much friction and general dissatis- 

 faction, endured till after the death of King 

 Malietoa Laupepa, in 1898. Trouble arose over 

 the succession, and a joint commission recom- 

 mended the abolition of the kingship. In Novem- 

 ber, 1899, Great Britain made an agreement with 

 Germany renouncing all political rights over the 

 islands of Savaii and Upolu in favor of Germany 

 and over the island of Tutuila in favor of the 

 United States. This was subject to its acceptance 

 by the United States, which was signified in Janu- 

 ary, 1900. 



The German Islands. Savaii has an area of 

 about 660 square miles and an estimated popu- 

 lation of about 14,000; Upolu an area of 340 

 square miles and a population of 18,000. Both 



islands are mountainous and have a fertile vol- 

 canic soil well supplied wit.li \v;iter, us are the 

 small islands adjacent. About 20<) New Zea- 

 landers and British and J50 Germans, beside* 

 many Americans, Frenchmen, and oilier foroi"n- 

 ers, resided on the islands when the Ormans took 

 possession. Apia, the seaport and trading center, 

 had a municipality with a German at ils head 

 under the condominium. This official, J)i. Solf, 

 was appointed Governor when the German pro- 

 tectorate was established. The inhabitants are 

 a branch of the Polynesian race. They profess 

 Christianity, part of them the Catholic and part 

 the Protestant faith, and some are Mormons, but 

 they are still influenced by heathen superstitions. 

 The expenditures of the administration were esti- 

 mated in 1900 at 252,000 marks and the local 

 receipts at 200,000 marks, the Imperial Govern- 

 ment contributing 52,000 marks. 



Tutuila. The island of Tutuila, which came 

 into the possession of the United States in ac- 

 cordance with the Anglo-German agreement, has- 

 an area of 54 square miles and about 3,800 in- 

 habitants. Manua and the other small islands 

 in the American part of the group have an area 

 of 25 square miles and probably 2,000 inhabitants. 

 Tutuila is mountainous, exceedingly fertile, well 

 wooded, and in its scenery and vegetation, its 

 natural resources, and the character of its people,, 

 it is the most interesting, attractive, and promis- 

 ing island of the Samoan group. American trad- 

 ers and missionaries have long been active in the 

 islands. American interests were relatively more 

 important before the commercial expansion of 

 New Zealand and the development of the copra 

 trade by the Germans. The political interest of 

 the United States Government in the islands be- 

 gan when the King was induced in 1872 to cede 

 to the United States the harbor of Pago Pago 

 for a naval and coaling station, less with a view 

 to its immediate utilization than with that of 

 preventing an impregnable natural stronghold 

 within cruising distance of the American coasts 

 from falling into the hands of another naval 

 power. Under the joint protectorate it was pro- 

 vided that an American citizen should fill the 

 office of chief justice in Samoa. The decision of 

 Chief-Justice William Chambers in favor of the 

 claim of Malietoa Tanu to the throne and against 

 that of the ex-rebel Mataafa, although the latter 

 had the strongest party among the natives, pre- 

 cipitated the civil strife of 1898. It was then 

 that the American naval authorities first occupied 

 Pago Pago. This landlocked harbor on the south- 

 ern side of the island is the only safe one in 

 Samoa, the best and most capacious in the Pa- 

 cific, and one of the most defensible and suitable 

 for a naval base in all the world. Commandant 

 B. F. Tilley was appointed administrator of the 

 American islands. Civil government was estab- 

 lished in every part, but the native customs were 

 not disturbed, nor the authority of the native 

 chiefs. 



All cases tried by native magistrates are re- 

 viewed by the High Court, and the native gov- 

 ernors and other officials make careful reports to 

 the administrator. A census taken of the popu- 

 lation of the American islands in March, 1901, 

 showed a total population of 5,800, a slight in- 

 crease over the population in 1871. Infant mor- 

 tality is excessive owing to the ignorance of the 

 people, who since the American occupation have 

 received medical advice and treatment for the first 

 time and are subject to sanitary laws which are 

 likely to lessen mortality. No intoxicating: 

 liquors are allowed to be sold to either natives, 

 or whites in Tutuila and Manua. 



