A Yankee doctor in paradise

by S. M. Lambert

There is a school of thought which points to the “decay of custom” as depopulation’s main cause. The native has ceased to take interest in a warrior’s physical well-being. The missions have discouraged those picturesque ancient ceremonials which were the background of tribal life. The Rivers Theory argues that boredom creates a psychic depression which actually decreases reproductive power; that it also encourages abortion and infanticide amidst the cry, “Why grow slaves for another race?” Undoubtedly this theory works out in some regions I have seen, where Christianity has been an ineffective substitute for the war club and the tribal dance. The warrior grows flabby. His wife, a squaw, slaves on.

But the main cause of depopulation in the Pacific, let me repeat, is the introduction of diseases to which the natives have no immunity. Even in the heart of Papua, where the Fathers of the Sacred Heart performed practical miracles among ferocious mountain cannibals a hundred miles from the coastline, working a non-malarious soil that produced bountiful nourishment, I heard the death-knell. I can’t forget how I heard Father Fastre’s bemused voice speaking under the moon: “Doctor, when I first came here I could stand at my doorway and see ten thousand people.” Where had they gone? The nearest village was four hours away, and from where he gazed the good priest saw only moonlit ghosts.

Cannibalism and head-hunting were rough blessings, because they quarantined tribe against tribe. Cannibalism is a shocking habit, as Herman Melville, if I remember correctly, pointed out, adding, “I ask whether the mere eating of human flesh so far exceeds in barbarity that custom [hanging, drawing and quartering, perhaps] which only a few years since was practiced in enlightened England?” I am not pro-cannibal, but medically speaking I can see how well it worked to keep the other fellow in his place.

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And what of it? asks Mr. Homebody as he walks toward the old parking lot off Main Street. How in the world will it affect me or the boys around American Legion Hall if those sun-kissed yahoos on the Isle of Gumbo do happen to curl up and die? Head-hunters are all right in side-shows, but they don’t affect business on Main Street.

Main Street is the very point, Mr. Homebody. I once told you how far-off contagions might someday travel to your front door and disturb your parochial calm. But here’s another side of it—something which might upset your business, because you’re a partner in world business, whether you know it or not.

The European seized the Pacific, and that’s an old story. In spite of the horrible example of bombing and burning which European civilization is showing today to the uncivilized, the settled holdings of various national governments over a quarter of the globe’s surface, the Pacific, must remain in statu quo. Unless it does, you will hear something you will not like, Mr. Homebody. The status quo over that vast empire is all-important, and it cannot be maintained unless the white man takes up his burden and carries it through.

Why? Because tropical products have become world business. The lands down there, including immense Australia, vast New Guinea and big New Zealand, make up a territory comparable in size to our Western Hemisphere. The failure of mines, plantations and fisheries on one side of our quarrelsome Earth cannot fail to react banefully on the other side. Copra, hemp, cotton, sugar, gold, spices, fruits, pearls, innumerable varieties of oils and drugs which have been discovered, or will be, are only items among the tropical products which have entered the international market. They are burdening ships in enormous quantities, and the tonnage will grow greater, unless....

If native labor fails, Oceania’s production will fail. Healthy, contented native labor is indispensable to the producer. The importation of Asiatics will not answer the question. Regard the Fiji Government’s experiment with East Indians, who are today outbreeding the Fijian, and have brought him no benefits. Observe Japan’s taking-over of the Marshall Islands, and the subsequent infiltration of yellow men all over the Pacific. These strangers came because the native was too sick to work the land. The oriental’s peaceful penetration is already doing mischief down there; he brought with him a set of political and social ideas which inevitably hook up with his homeland prejudices, and extend into every intrigue of Weltpolitik. He has nothing in common with the simple islander whom he is pushing aside.

What will come of it all? Supply and demand are cruel partners. The planter must work his plantation, the shipper fill his ships; and if there is not enough healthy native labor to do the work, then send away to Shanghai or Bombay for what you can get. These fellows may not last long, either, but they will stay long enough to disturb the economic balance. South Sea industry will grow anemic, an easy prey to whatever Axis happens to be grinding blood out of the human race.