Show saua ROGERS aers BEVERLY HILLS well all I 1 knem la Is just what whai I 1 read in the papers and believe me I 1 have finally found a paper got something in it its i the st thomas mall ma it of the town of st 0 T h a 0 m a B s virgin islands IT S A now you might have read in the local press various references to mr fl hoovers flooder s statement about the condition of the islands after he had bad a few weeks ago I 1 now in all fairness to I 1 dont think he meant jt exactly like it was wag reported to have been said he did see that they were in a pretty bad condition financially and he might have in order to stir up a little interest in them thein and perhaps be ablo able to get them a federal contribution of some kind hind have thought he be was doing them a favor by bringing to the publics eye the tact fact that they were bad off but at any rate it seems to have had the opposite effect and it if you ever saw anyone up in arms its these Vir ginders here la Is how bow I 1 happened to know and get in on all this it was a lovely after noon we had flown some several hundred miles from trinidad port of spain which la Is owned by the british and is a very beautiful island just off the north east edge edg 0 of venezuela Vene yuela we were headed beaded for porto rica tor for that night we come down in the bay of st thomas for gas and mall mail its a beautiful little harbor and a lovely picturesque little town some mighty hospitable folks there it was a navy base but they are moving it away in the days before america had gone racketeer it made rum and good rum it was a legitimate business carried on by experts that had bad made it for generations then during a time when our ambitions were bigger than our judgement jud gement why we thought we should spread out and try and be A nation now it there Is one thing that we do worse than any other nation its to try ind manage somebody alses affairs we ar are e very original nobody else can see things our way of at course they are wrong but they just wont want be broadminded and let us show ein cm bow they should live during this expansion we thought we ought to have the virgin islands denmark 1 I believe it was as they owned em and we just bought em give em twenty live in mil lion dollars but lets get on with the story mr air hoover had just finished a siege with the senate und and he needed a res rest t so BO he be went to porta rica and also to the virgin islands and then home and mado made his observations As we land on this lovely lavely afternoon why I 1 am tickled to death to be able to fly by and see our absent countrymen and get their reaction on our presidents visit well they took me ashore and they said they wanted my visit to offset his so I 1 told em to go ahead and make their rum that there was no reason they should take prohibition seriously u sly lust last because they belonged to the V U 8 so with a bunch of them we all went and had bad a nip of rum pune punch h and I 1 dont mind telling you the islands looked great to me I 1 dIss agree with mr hoover look near as poor as some parts of our country why there was no bread lines no red cross relief I 1 asked where most of the people were and they said out at the golf course that was the only evidence of poverty I 1 saw for as you know practically all our unemployed are at ours I 1 sure liked the place and wished I 1 could have stayed over a few days met some mighty pleasant folks there it looked like 9 very happy little community till the president hit it saw a few marines scattered around but as it was amerlean american territory they have many Coul dent have been so 80 far behind th the 0 times they had tw two of my pictures there tackles talkies tal kies kles and one of them I 1 badent even seen at home yet in myself I 1 was waa awful sorry that they had missen this prohibition thing thine and quit selling their rum and when I 1 ex plaines to em cm the interpretation that the mainland of the U S had bad put on tho the Amender Amen dement nent why they were tickled to death and started right in to get ready to manat on a big scale I 1 gave them calones capones Ca pones address as I 1 wanted to see era em get started with the best folks folk over home where they could get the most for their product of course they will have to start from the bottom in to competition for fat the V U S had twelve years of at business bustness start on them but they will be all right now and ibe the next time epresi a president visits them their product will be making them rich just like chicago or any of their centers I 1 am going to have those Vir ginders so rich they will be ba able to have 20 thousand dollar funerals and presidents tont mean anything to em cm W wl 1931 tl naught syndicate inc |