HAITI AND ITS REGENERATION BY THE UNITED STATES 511 



installed, in many cases water plants put were withdrawn from the Haitian gov- 



into operation, and sanitary regulations ernment today, a speedy relapse to the 



put into force. conditions which preceded the interven- 



To assist in the future health and sani- tion would follow, 

 tary work of the Haitian nation, a corps 



of Haitian trained nurses has been de- A difficult language problem 



veloped by the American sanitary au- In solving Haiti's problems, the first 



thorities. American doctors and nurses requirement is popular education for the 



have trained Haitian women in the pro- average Haitian. The subject of educat- 



fession of nursing, and, in cooperation ing the Haitians is one hedged in with 



with the local physicians, have instructed the greatest difficulties, because the lan- 



a number of men sufficiently to enable guage of Haiti is not a written language, 



them to fill acceptably positions as health but is a development of the negro tongues 



and sanitary inspectors. spoken by the African tribes from which 



Begun in 191 7, this work has pro- the Haitians are descended, 



gressed favorably to the present. The This language is called creole by the 



Haitian women in particular have proved French, and it contains a few French 



adept pupil nurses, and at present there words. It bears no relation to French, 



are several hundred qualified for service however, and a Frenchman is no more 



in the hospitals of the island and to per- able to speak or understand it than an 



form all the duties of the nursing pro- American. Indeed, it varies much in dif- 



fession in their community. ferent districts of Haiti and a native of 



Hospitals have been built and public one section has great difficulty in under- 

 works of all sorts undertaken. Not the standing the inhabitants of another. Only 

 least of these is the reform of the Haitian a small percentage of the Haitians speak 

 prison system. Formerly the prisons French and even fewer speak English, 

 were chambers of horrors, where Hai- The problem of educating the Haitians 

 tians lay in chains and irons, covered with to read and write is accordingly ex- 

 filth and vermin, without care of any tremely difficult. Either an alphabet and 

 sort. Now the prisons are as clean and a way of writing their native tongue must 

 sanitary as the barracks of the gen- be devised or the entire nation must be 

 darmerie, who have charge of prison taught to speak French or English. 

 work, and instead of being kept in con- Obviously either of these alternatives 

 finement, the prisoners are put to work presents a task of extreme difficulty, but 

 on public improvements, for which work one or the other must be done before 

 they receive regular pay. substantial progress can be made by the 



Many of the prisoners leave their Haitians toward civilization. One of the 

 places of confinement with great regret greatest services which the United States 

 when their sentence is finished, and there could render Haiti would be the appro- 

 have been quite a number of Haitians priation of a considerable sum to be ap- 

 who have refused to leave their jails and plied to education in that republic. Under 

 have committed minor offenses in order such an appropriation American teachers 

 to be returned following their release. could be sent to Haiti, Haitians educated 



In summing up what has been done in in the United States, and a vigorous 



Haiti and what must be done if the Hai- campaign conducted. 



tians are to be enabled to reach the point Such a campaign would parallel the 



where they can attain a suitable govern- educational work done by the United 



ment and take their place as one of the States in the Philippines, where the 



civilized nations of the world, it must problem was largely the same as that 



be admitted that much remains to be ac- which confronts Haiti. As the campaign 



complished. in the Philippines proved a success, there 



The United States forces have estab- is every reason to believe that within a 



lished law and order in Haiti, a condition similar period equal progress could be 



which has not existed for more than a made in the Haitian Republic, and within 



century, but little progress has been made twenty years we should have a people 



toward educating the Haitians in the art speaking English almost as universally as 



of self-government. If the Americans Haitian. 



