[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 42 (Monday, March 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E520-E521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


IN SUPPORT OF THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS TRANSFER DAY, 
                             MARCH 31, 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN

                         of the virgin islands

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 12, 2007

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I rise with great pride to celebrate 
the 90th anniversary of the transfer of the three small islands in the 
Caribbean from Danish to American control on March 31st, 1917. On that 
day, the Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands and my 
district, the district that consists of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. 
John and a host of other smaller islands became part of the American 
family.
  The people of the U.S. Virgin Islands are both proud Virgin Islanders 
and proud Americans. We are a diverse community comprised of people who 
are native to the island, those who have moved there from Puerto Rico 
and many of the surrounding Caribbean island nations, mainlanders from 
the continental United States, and people from many other parts of 
Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In our 90 years, we have come 
to reflect the American melting pot, evolving from many people, yet 
striving to become one.
  One of the aspects that make the U.S. Virgin Islands a special place 
is our reverence for our history and our past and our concern that we 
pass on to our children the story of how we came to this place and how 
we have lived here, and struggled here and thrived here.
  Transfer Day, the day that our islands became part of the American 
family, has long been a source of pride as we have celebrated it over 
the years with parades and fanfare and speeches of historic 
significance. But our relationship with the United States of America, 
began long before 1917.
  Christopher Columbus, credited with the discovery of the Americas 
stopped at Salt River Bay on the island of St. Croix on his second 
voyage, making it one of the only confirmed Columbus landing sites 
under the U.S. flag today.
  One of this country's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, who also 
served as its first Secretary of the Treasury, spent his boyhood on St. 
Croix in the Virgin Islands, where he is said to have learned the 
rudiments of finance, as he worked as a clerk in the international 
trade business of his mentor Nicholas Cruger in the busy Caribbean port 
town of Christiansted. It was in the Virgin Islands that his talent was 
first noticed, as his writing in the local newspapers, in particular on 
the 1772 hurricane, spurred his supporters to send him to New York the 
next year where he became part of the brewing American Revolution.
  The Virgin Islands with its natural harbors had long been a trading 
partner of the colonies of North America, and during the American 
Revolution, it was the small Danish fort on the western side of St. 
Croix, Ft. Frederik that was one of the first to salute the new 
American colors when one of its ships sailed into Frederiksted harbor.
  The United States of America recognized the strategic importance of 
the tiny Virgin Islands, then known as the Danish West Indies as early 
as 1865 when negotiations began for their purchase. According to 
historians, ``the need for military bases at strategic points in the 
Caribbean'' was bolstered by the construction of the Panama Canal. 
Purchasing the Virgin Islands became important because it would 
``enable the United States to defend the approaches to the Panama Canal 
and it would prevent the islands from falling into the hands of 
countries that were hostile to the United States.''
  During World War I, it was the fear that Germany wanted a foothold in 
the Caribbean and fear that Denmark, who owned the islands at the time 
would be overrun by the Germans in the war, that prompted a more 
aggressive approach towards their purchase. By January 1916, 
``agreement was reached on $25 million as a compromise between the 
Danish demand for $27 million and the American offer of $20 million.''
  We are told by our parents and grandparents that Transfer Day, March 
31, 1917 was one of mixed emotions. While some were excited at the 
prospect of becoming part of the American nation, others were sad that 
the ties with Denmark that were 250 years old were about to be broken. 
Residents of the islands were given the choice of Danish or American 
citizenship and some remained loyal to the Danish flag while others 
enthusiastically embraced their new nation.
  The United States of America entered World War I one week after the 
Virgin Islands were transferred to its ownership and the islands were 
placed under Navy rule as they were used as a coaling depot for U.S. 
ships during that period. The Navy enacted a number of social reforms 
to include reorganizing the hospitals and improving its equipment, 
instituting a sanitary code and mosquito control which drastically 
reduced the death rate. They also built the St. Thomas catchment and 
the St. Croix Creque Dam which increased the amount of safe, reliable 
drinking water. They instituted a sewage disposal system, and a fire 
and police system. They built and improved schools and trained and 
hired teachers at a higher rate of pay. They were not as successful at 
economic development and annual revenues plunged to less than what it 
was under the Danes, prompting an out-migration to then U.S. controlled 
territories like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and the mainland. During 
that time, new immigrants from Puerto Rico and the mainland and an 
increased birthrate due to better sanitation bolstered the population 
numbers.

  It was in 1931 that the Department of the Interior was given the 
authority to administer the islands and charged with the economic 
regeneration of the islands. It was during that time that the first 
civilian governor was appointed, Dr. Paul M. Pearson who was 
responsible for the institution of the homestead program which allowed 
for the purchase of old plantation lands for homes and small farms. It 
was during this period that our tourism industry began as the first 
three hotels were built on St. Thomas and that opportunities for higher 
education were provided with scholarships to Hampton and Howard 
Universities for our worthy students. But the economy of the islands 
was still in need of a shot in the arm and political development was 
still in its infancy. These were the cause of discontent among the 
people.
  It was not until 10 years after the Transfer, on February 25, 1927, 
that United States citizenship was granted through congressional 
enactment to all natives of the Virgin Islands and residents on and 
after January 17, 1917 including those who moved to the U.S. or Puerto 
Rico before or after January 17, 1917 who had not become citizens of 
any foreign country and to all children born in the Virgin Islands on 
or after January 17, 1917.
  Another Act of Congress in 1932 further extended U.S. citizenship to 
all natives of the Virgin Islands living in the United States or any 
other U.S. territory who were not citizens of any foreign country 
regardless of their place of residence on January 17, 1917.
  It was in the years between the Transfer and the early 1930s, that 
the people began awakening to their political power and began agitation 
for more local, democratic control, extended voting rights, and other 
enfranchisement common to the American Nation. Advocacy through the 
local press came from men such as Rothschild Francis on St. Thomas, D. 
Hamilton Jackson on St. Croix and Casper Holstein, a wealthy St. Croix 
born New Yorker. They began pushing for more local democratic control 
of the institutions that governed the people of the Virgin Islands.
  In this atmosphere, under some political unrest which included 
demonstrations and congressional inquiries and investigations, two 
major constitutional achievements were gained, namely the right of 
women to vote in December of 1935 and the passage of the First Organic 
Act on June 22, 1936.
  The First Organic Act was said to represent a considerable extension 
of political power with the creation of two municipal councils, St. 
Thomas-St. John and St. Croix and a Legislative Assembly consisting of 
the two councils. Property and income qualifications were abolished, 
but English literacy was required of voters. Other features of the Act 
were a governor appointed by the President, who had veto power which 
could be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the Council, with final 
decision making rested in the President. The governor was also required 
to report annually to the Secretary of the Interior on financial 
transactions.

  It was during this period that the first of our Virgin Islands 
soldiers began fighting and dying for their new country. Whether 
joining the military from Puerto Rico, the closest enlisting station to 
the territory or from where they had migrated in New York or elsewhere, 
our young men joined to defend our nation and some of them paid the 
ultimate sacrifice.
  It was after World War II, in the period between 1950 and 1970, with 
increased economic expansion and political power that the population in 
the Virgin Islands began to double and triple. It was the result of 
increased birth rate, immigration from the mainland, Puerto Rico and 
the surrounding Caribbean islands to fill the new jobs created by the 
expanding tourism industry and the new oil and aluminum refineries and 
watch industry. There was also a movement of native Virgin Islanders 
who had moved away in earlier decades for economic opportunity back to 
the islands.
  In 1950, the first native Virgin Islander, Morris deCastro was 
appointed governor. With his appointment came the recognition by the 
United States of the growing ability of the people of the Virgin 
Islands to govern themselves. The growth of political parties and the 
increased participation of the electorate, the growth and 
diversification of the economy and the population all set the stage for 
the need to

[[Page E521]]

revise the Organic Act to provide for the political and administrative 
re-organization of the Virgin Islands. With the Revised Organic Act of 
1954, the present governmental structure of the Virgin Islands with its 
laws, administrative departments and its unicameral legislature were 
formed. The English literacy requirement instituted in 1936 was removed 
paving the way for Spanish speaking residents to have a voice in 
governmental affairs.
  In 1968, after the First Constitutional Convention of 1964-65, the 
Elective Governor Act of 1968 provided for an elected governor and lt. 
governor to serve four year terms, a delegate to Congress, and the 
lowering of the voting age to 18. In 1970, the U.S. Virgin Islands 
elected the first of its seven governors to office. The Honorable 
Melvin Evans was elected the first Governor. My predecessor, the 
Honorable Ron de Lugo became our first Delegate to Congress and I am 
proud to serve as the fourth elected and first woman Delegate to 
Congress.
  Since that time there have been several attempts to deal with the 
internal structure of our government, through drafting a new 
Constitution in 1981 and through a referendum on the nature of the 
territory's relationship to the United States which culminated in a 
referendum in 1993. This summer, Virgin Islanders will again attempt to 
draft a constitution to address many of the structural issues that 
continue to pose challenges to governance and every day living. It is 
my hope that on the 90th anniversary of the Transfer and our sojourn as 
part of the American family that we use it to analyze, plan and bring 
to fruition a common vision for our territory by 2017, the hundredth 
anniversary celebration.
  Madam Speaker, there is much good that has come from this 90-year-old 
relationship between the U.S. Virgin Islands and the United States of 
America. Our islands have not only grown in population and diversity, 
but have made strides in governmental infrastructure and the provision 
of services in health, education, transportation infrastructure, and 
social welfare. Much of this has been accomplished in partnership with 
the federal government. There are many challenges that have also arisen 
because of rapid growth and development and lack of control over issues 
such as border control and the lack of a plan to manage our resources 
to include land and water use. We have been a beacon for development 
and advancement in the region and have attracted people from all over 
the world. It is my hope that this 90th anniversary will strengthen our 
resolve to become a stronger, more cohesive community with a dream and 
a plan for peace and prosperity into this 21st century and beyond.

                          ____________________